Week # 78 --26 weeks left!!! Root beer arrived !!!!!

Eden drinking Root beer !!!! Happy BOY !

Greetings to one and all from the Eternal Spring!

  This has been a fine week, but I feel that first I must tell you about changes!  First off... I`d like you to meet my new companion, he`s from Bountiful, likes to fish, and is named Elder Kingston. 

*uh... it`s Elder Kingsford* 

What?

*My names Elder Kingsford.*

Ah right... WAIT!!! That is the companion I have now!  Hooray!

   So yes, we did not change!  So once again, we will reign in power and joy here in Latacunga for 4 more weeks!  I say four weeks because they cut down the change by 2 weeks to get in schedule with the MTC, so I guess that`s why all the missionaries are coming home 2 weeks early!  Good for us!

   And for other grand and glorious news, we did have 3 successful confirmations!  The family Sal, or... a portion of them, were baptized Saturday!  Her husband and son are the next to go, and have been delayed due to work trips for the army in the orient and waiting for their 7 year old son to turn 8!  But they both really want to be baptized too, so we`ll be working closely with them in this next month or so.

   And thanks for your letters, it sounds as if Paul is going to rocket off to Oklahoma majestically!  And it`s good to hear that everyone still loves the Purple Moon in Lava Hot springs! 

  And I did get one of your packages!  The one with the Root beer has arrived!  And we have put it to good use!  The other day we made 3 liters for ourselves and drank it with 2 days! IT was great, and then we also made some with the family Salgado, and they did like it too!  But unfortunately it leaked a little and got all over my hymn book and shirt, but at least now they smell like fresh root beer! 

So, it seems I`m a little short on time again, but I shall write you all come next Monday!  Stay sharp!



-Elder Sanders


Photos: Me enjoying home made root beer, the baptism, and the night of changes

Powerful testimony of Christ-. Week 77 - 27 left :)

Hello dearest family!

 This has been a rather eventful week!  We`ve had many new things occur!

First off, BAPTISMS!!! yes, the 2 sons of Pat  have been received wonderfully into the fold!  The service went great, many people arrived to the service (including 2 investigators), and they both bore powerful testimonies!  Twas great!  And their dad is the next in line!  So I hope that he will make the choice sometime soon! HE IS SO CLOSE!!! All he needs is a little nudge, and he'll be there.

But, as we have success, also disappointment, for it seems as if we may be losing our investigator Nancy (the once-Jehovah`s Witness lady).  So it turns out that during all this time with her she hasn`t prayed about anything we had taught, and she told us that she didn`t want to, that she was scared to do so.  But we were with her for over an hour and a half, but to no avail!  So if this next lesson doesn`t look any brighter we may not be able to keep visiting with her.  Joy and sorrow of the mission!
But for happy news again, we are to have 3 baptisms this Saturday!  The family S. ! So we hope all goes well,

And today for P-Day, we went fishing!  Why? because my companion is a fishing addict :)   SO we went, and turns out, it was just a pool with many  many fish already in it.  Great because you could catch a medium sized trout in less than 2 seconds (literally), but also a little bad because after 5 minutes you already had 10 fish!  So, we kept the big ones, and tonight, we are going to cook them! MM!!!

Also!  On the way over, we saw a special ad campaign thing, because right now the elections are going on, and what do you know!!! The PRESIDENT OF ECUADOR drove by and we got a photo!  Neat right? Perfect timing on our part.

And interviews too went great, I think I`ll try to send a copy of my goals once I can get of picture of them, but all in all, it went great.


And it seems I`m low on time, so I think I`ll end with that requested testimony. I hope it helps with Meikayla`s talk:

  `I feel that oft-times I don`t give as much thanks as I should to our Savior for what he did for us, and even if I could give all I could muster in the effort to do so, it still would not be enough, for what he did for us was so incomprehensible grand and glorious that it envelops everything we could possibly do for him.  What our Lord and Master accomplished, the atonement, the creation, and the many other marvelous and magnificent works, are of such great grandeur that it entirely overwhelms us, and it does that because that`s how much the Lord loves us.  His Love is so infinite and immense, so powerful and pure, that countless creations and insurmountable sacrifices have been made by Him for us, his brothers and sisters.  And everything good that we receive here in our lives, is all due to that love which He practically freely gives to us.  And for that, just like in the renowned hymn, I proclaim, `I believe in Christ`.  The author and rock of our salvation.  Amen

Elder Sanders 

The President of Ecuador !!!!!! Presidente Correa

Elder Sanders made the baptism program

Baptism

photos!-  Baptism photos, baptismal agendas (turned out great!!!) president Correa (as he is called) and us fishing up a storm!

Week #76 - 28 weeks left !! 6 months left

HI FAMILY!!!

So! I`m a little short on time today, so I`ll be writing rather quickly!

FIRST OFF!!!! At last!  Ruben and Rafael  have received permission to be baptized!  They are set to go this Saturday!  So wish us luck!  And thank you for your prayers!

Next! 

Hm.... is there a next? 

It seemed that was the big news item for the week. 

So... I`ll go to your letters!  Let`s see, question/Answer time!

OK!! First off, Congrats to Dad for still being a stalward missionary!  Looks like all may go well!  And speaking of missionaries, a second congrats to Ashlyne`s friend!  He will be a mighty Elder in the field!  Which reminds me, the change ends in 2 weeks, and 60 new missionaries are going to flood our mission!  And 40 of them are gringos!  So I just bet I`ll be training again, but we`ll see. Elder Kingsford and I really are hoping that they send 2 of them to our sector so that we can not only stay together, but advance the work here! There is SO MUCH potential here!

And Tristen is getting so big!  THREE ALREADY!! Now that`s just crazy! 

And speaking of crazy, dearest Logan Caldwell has transfigured from Missionary to RM?! HOORAY!!! For serving the honorable 2 years!  I will definitely be sending you a letter! Which, bytheyway, I send you guys a letter to Transfer over to Mikayla Boren, I seem to have lost her address!  Should be there in a month.

Next, I don`t think I have a departure date. Usually the missionaries here don`t get that until a month before they head home, the missionaries here call it their `Trunky papers`.  So, I`ll let you know come May.  And I haven`t gotten packages yet!  I did get the Christmas cards though! From the plowman`s, the sanders, and even Erik. I hope they`re in this next week! 

And as for other news, we have interviews with President Ghent on Friday, and we need to bring some goals for the year 2013 with us, so I`m coming prepared!  I seems this year I want to work on daily Repentance and forgiveness, for they are oh so necessary!  I hope that I can polish the quality found in

Alma 5:19,
 19 I say unto you, can ye look up to God at that day with a pure heart and clean hands? I say unto you, can you look up, having the ^aimage of God engraven upon your countenances?

 Actually, on second thought, you should just read the whole chapter,.  It`s like a personal self-inspection kind of chapter, like a self-evaluation sort of thing.  BUT IT*S WAY DIRECT!!! You`ll like it.

.
Well! I think that`s all for the week!  I wish you all well, and hope you have a swell day!

-Elder Sanders

PS-PHOTOS:

My QUENA, the magical musical wonder of Ecuador, a drawing I did for a 11 year old in the hospital that we visited, (his legs got ran over by a car!  He should be able to leave this next week! But we gave him a blessing and he seems to be recovering very well) and my new journal. 

  HASTA LUEGO!!!

Week # 75 - 29 left

Hello To  All those within the sound of my luxurious voice! 

Happy first week of the NEW YEAR !  The year in which I shine my greatest!

  The 6-Month downhill run!  It should be an Olympic event, ha ha.

SO!  First, I did love all of your photos!  From our rad new kitchen to your very own Año Viejo!  I did love it indeed!  WAY TO GO!!! 
I can`t wait to do it next year with you all, it should definitely be a new family tradition.    (and Dad`s Elk-Bacon burger sounds legendary!)

OK.... News of the week...  Ah yes!  It took me a week to realize, but we`ve been getting TONS of people with a baptismal date!  here`s a sample list:

-Family S: cousins to members, 3 boys 2 parents, their dad is a parachuting marine in the army, they are the most rich investigators I`ve ever taught, AND:  4 of them have a baptismal date! They are humble, and they are in need of the gospel!

-D and K: Newly weds.  one is 15, one is 18, and they have a baby!  They are great too, but didn`t attend church!  :(

.N,  She was attended Jehovah`s witness, but now her and her husband are way into the church!  Her husband has been to a lot of others, and hasn`t liked them.,.. until now that is!  They came to our ward activity (sport`s night) and also to church!  And they are great!

-G:  A reference from our ward mission leader... and all that`s interesting about him is that he accepted to be baptized, and we haven`t seen him since!  We`ll find him soon.  :)

So, all in all, the work is going well!  We`re still working with the family M, the rest of them need to be baptized so BADLY!!!   But we`ll see what we can do for them...

And for an update on our English classes!  I don`t know if I`ve told you, but Elder Kingsford and I have been doing english classes for about 4 weeks now, and it seems every other week it goes from Many in attendance, to almost none!  So we hope next week will go better!  We need some references hungry to learn some solid gringo language!  Because it`s a good service, because many english classes here are rather expensive and often ineffective, so it really does help to go to them!

And it seems  as of late, we have been making many trips to the hospital.  Not because we`re sick!  But because member after member have been falling ill these last two months back!  At least 7 if I+m correct.... so we`ve been busy with blessings, visits, and bringing good cheer to all.  In fact, one dramatic one we had recently was with one niece of the ward pianist who had gone blind and needed a surgery to correct it, and once they had the surgery, she couldn`t see!  The doctor`s said that it was her mind not letting her be able to use her eyes, but after a blessing from us and weeks of prayers from the members, her eyesight was restored!  So a lovely success story!  Blessings do work! 



So! I hope you all have a lovely week!  Eat well, get plenty of rest and exercise! 

When I say that, I really mean feed your testimony, give rest to your soul, and exercise faith!

(I just made that up on the spot, ha ha! So it`s an Elder Sander`s original!  But a good principle to live by!  So do it! )

Elder Sanders

Photos: New years!  Our año viejos, before and after!

Week # 74 - 30 weeks left

DEAREST FAMILY!!!

Christmas was mighty!!!

Plenty of candy bags from members, monopoly, and food!  We made homemade Navajo tacos and Wassail! And they turned out waaay good! 

And yes, the phone call was extraordinary…now I`m all trunky!!!  (missing home,missionary slang)  but I did love it.  And it seems as if Christmas was a dream come true for you all too!  We really enjoyed taking a day or so off from missionary work,  wait.  It`s impossible to get a day off from missionary work, isn`t it?  Oh well!

SO! Today we got to go visit Lago Quilotoa!  A giant volcano which inactivated and turned into a beautiful lake!  We did love it indeed! It took about a half an hour to get down to see it, but over an hour to get back up!  It was exhausting! But worth it! I`ll attach photos of our epic journey! We went with a member leaving on his mission in a week, his dad, and Ruben, sister Patricia`s son. 

SO we had fun… until Ruben threw up in the car!  It was bad because he was sitting in the middle!  But we got it all cleaned up. 

What else.. Ah yes!  We also got to help family Maldonado to make an `año Viejo`, an old man made out of newspaper and old clothes to burn on new years!   I don`t know if you recall the tradition,but you make a giant dummy to represent the bad things that happened last year, and then burn it! It represents putting the past behind and forgetting about the bad that was in it!  And then, many men dress up like widowed old ladies,  and stop cars with branches and chain the roads, and won`t let them pass until they give them money, because, well, their `husbands` got burned, and now they are poor and widowed.  Right?  but on the way back from the lake our car got stopped 3 times by the man-ladies!!!  Odd, but it`s an Ecuador special!

Alright, so as for the work, we had 3 new investigators with baptismal dates! BUT NONE OF THEM showed up to church! but we did find a new family of 2 newlyweds, and it seems that Patricia`s husband is going to give permission for her 2 sons to be baptized!  The goal is for the 12th, so we hope it goes well!

Anio Viejo !!!

WELL! That is all for the moment, and I do wish everyone a very Merry Evening,

-Elder Sanders