Week 87 - 3 months = 91 days left

Hello Dearest family!

What a week!  It`s been busy busy busy down here!  

And so, to begin answering your questions, YES! I do come home on July First! 

Pretty exciting, right?  So I guess that means I`ll be home for the 4th of July!  Excitement!

So, I fear that today I only have a little bit of writing time because I needed to check out the UVU signups, and because today we took a zone Trip to Otavalo!  It was SO nice to visit it again!  It`s too bad I didn`t have time to visit any old members or converts, but it was good to go the waterfall and get some last minute souveneirs for you guys, so all is well.

And many congrats to Chantel!  The call is coming!  I just HOPE that I`ll be able to see you before you embark, but either way, I`m WAY excited.

And happy Easter to you all too!  It`s good to remember Christ and all that he did for us, and we have been striving diligently to do so in this last week.  

SO! This week has been full of divisions with other missionaries, lessons, and many other things.  Jovi

isn`t baptized yet because she had left on a trip to the coast last week, and hasn`t returned because her cousin there had a motorcycle accident, and while he`s recovering she`s helping watching his children. So if all goes well she should be back in time to be baptized on Conference weekend!  So we`re pretty excited.

And... well, I fear  my time has run out!  So enjoy the photos, and I`ll be writing plenty next week!  Why? Because our internet has been extended from One hour, to TWO HOURS!!! What a great responsibility!   See y`all!

-Elder Sanders

99 days left to live ! week 86 - 18 left

A great greeting to family, friends, and all those who also will be reading these writings! And for a fine introduction to this letter, as of Today, I have only 99 days left in Ecuador! Incredible how time passes, isn´t it?

 This has been a rather fine week, actually, a VERY BUSY week!  It seems we´ve been more focused on helping our zone out then our own at times!  This week, we were priviliged to serve our fellow missionaries with some baptismal interviews, 2 divisions, and this morning. We arose at 5:00 AM, traveled to a house of missionaries in our zone, and at 6:30 sharp, rapped upon thier windows!  We made breakfast for them, spent some building up time together, and studied with them for the morning. It did go well! I beleive they are now superbly strengthened.

AND SO!!! The world is doing crazy things without me! Lauren is engaged? Chantel´s papers are in? It snowed! New callings! What a great time you all are having there in Utah! It makes me all the more excited to come up and see you all!  But, all in due time!

And Madison! Thank you for loving me just as much as I did for you!  You are a binding link in the Sanders Family, so keep being fun and happy and joyful!  And congrats in color guard, keep it up!

And so, let´s see what is new for the week: hm. not too much!  We´ve definitely been contacting plenty, but it seems that at the moment our little zone is having a hard time just finding new people!  It seems as if we need to try a few new tactics, and one of the president´s assistants today just advised that we should try to talk to at least 20 people every day.  That´s about 140 new people known for one week!  So we´re going to try to get our whole zone to help us out with that.

And this Saturday, is the baptism of Jovita! She passed her interview, and all shall go incredibly well for this weekend.

As for other side-bits, me and my companion just started to do P-90X workouts this week too!  And for those who know not what that is, just imagine the most manly exercize program conceived!  And my! We were as sore as professional grizzly-bear wrestlers! we tried to go to the store and buy some protien to help us out, but unfortunately, here in Ecuador things can be really cheap or really expensive, and the smallest container we could find cost a whopping $75!  So, could you guys see how much it costs over there?  We may ask you to send some if it´s not too huge....

but aside from that, we are really striving to make ourselves better missionaries spiritually also, and have found that we have really been focusing on the concept of Daily Repentance.  That whenever we make a big mistake, such as breaking a Mission Manuel rule or something, we stop, and say a sincere pray of forgiveness before we keep working, and strive never to do it again!  And we have found that all is going well! So we hope that this week we have plenty of success! 

AND TOMORROW!!! We have a massive training meeting with all the leaders in the mission here, and it goes from 9 in the morning to 3:30 in the afternoon!  So it will be a big day!

Well, until then, until next week my loved ones!

-Elder Sanders

Photos: Well, it seems that the ONLY times I have my camera is when we are cooking or doing something with food! So, here is us after a delicious homemade pasta, me making pancakes at 7:00 Am earlier today, and a box of make it yourself GNOCCHIS imported from ITALY!!!! I WILL EAT THEM WELL!  Until Next week!  May our heavenly father bless you all!

Week 85 ( 19 left ) Man vs Ecuador

A mighty fine greeting to one and all from The Eternal Spring!

 This week has been tough!  Well, actually, I think  this whole first half of the change has been tough!  Never have we been so dedicated to contacting people in the street!  And so far, it´s going partially well, it seems as if as of now Jovita is the only one with a baptismal date!  But we´ll keep searching.

SO! We´ve had some good and adventurous times this week! I´d say the greatest was this last Saturday, so I will do my best to dramatize it although I´m not quite a scholar, but oh well!:

¨Noon! Twas week´s end, and my companion and I did have a morsel of time to spare. Looking axiously at our watches, we saw that we had only an hour to find a new family before the week ended, and we did so dearly wish to find a new family!  We strapped on our packs and headed out to the world, without plans nor strategy, we began to eagerly knock upon doors, hoping that some soul would have compassion enough to let us in. And why would they have more compassion on us than in any other moment? For the elements of nature could no longer contain thier fury, and a monstrous hurracane had unleashed itself onto Carcelen Alto!  Rain poured off our backpacks, and chilled knuckles wrapped earnestly on many homes, but none would accept us!  Floods of water rushed to our ankles, our pants began to soak, but we strode on!  Nature would not stop the work of the lord! Lightning flashed furiously about us, and the thunder rocked the small city, even unto setting car alarms off by it´s furious power!  And in the midst of the tempest, we were softly tapped by an impression to look for an old investigator, the one named Victor who had attended church so often, but was never found between Sunday to Sunday. He used to work all the week long, even on Sundays, violating the Sabbath, but near a week ago we had committed him to keep the Sabbath day holy, and he promised to us to do so. And there we were, swimming through the storm, where we at last made it to his workshop, cold and soaking, but burning with spiritual eminence.  We only had 15 minutes, but 15 minutes is enough to testify!  We did sit down, and before we began he told us that he had been keeping the Sabbath day holy, and what we had promised him had came true.  We had told him, that if he would stop working on Sundays, then the Lord would provide for him far more pay and work during the week than would provide any Sunday of work. And what had happened?  He had so much work and business during the week, that he did not even have room in his schedule to let us come and teach him!  So, through rain and patience, we had seen the gospel begin to work miracles in this man´s life, what a blessing! And we were thus satisfied.´

Well, so that was the great story of the week!  So we hope that he progresses!  But I fear that my little story robbed too much time, so just for a recap of the letter:

-Hooray for Ashylne, Madison, and Meikayla for Extracurricular success

-I´m super jealous of Chantel for her amazing trip to Hawaii !

 

-YES! I would love a copy of the Lamb of God CD,

-Elder Sanders

PHOTOS:

-Elder Bloxham and I being Epic in the most futuristic chapel hallway ever conceived in Ecuador

 

-Us at the sister Missionary´s baptismal service, and since none of the sisters have the priesthood to baptize, I was chosen to do it for them! What a special treat!

 

-And this morning, we woke up at 5am and went to some missionary´s in our zone´s house to see how they are doing, to study with them and show how much we support them.  And what´s the best way to share love? BON-BONS!! They did turn our rather delicious!

Ofelia Quito week # 84 , 20 wks left...

Greetings! To all, far and near, short and tall!

  Good to see you all again!  How is life stateside?  Good from the sound of it!    For me, this week has been busier than an Italian bakery! (very busy)

SO! To start off, let´s answer some email questions:
  

-YES! I do know Elder Austin Tucket, we are good friends now, and his grandpa owns Lehi bakery.

-Congrats to Meikayla, Ashylne, and Madision in all their extracurricular madness, and 

  a big hurray to Mikayla Boren and Megan!  

-And yes, our sector is rather... rich, so right now we are just trying to contact in the poor areas!  

- And lastly, that Talk was great!  keep it handy so you can use it later!

And alright!  This has been such a busy week!  We are working like hikers, for we are doing nothing but walking for miles everyday!   We´ve been having many door contacts, and not too many new investigators, but as of now we have 2 people with a baptismal date:  

1-Jovita!  She is going to get baptized on the 23rd!  And is doing great,

2-Jennifer!  She was an old investigator that the missionaries taught a half a year ago, and now really wants to get baptized, for she has 6 kids (all of whom are members!) and a husband who has some Word of Wisdom problems, but she needs to get married to be able to be baptized!  She wants to, but her husband doesn´t seem to up for it.  So we prescribed them to all pray so that she would be able find the way to complete with the commandment and be baptized by the 30th of march, so keep her in your prayers too!

We also have been having many new zone leader things!  This last Wednesday was my first Zone Leader Council, where all the zone leaders in the mission meet together and have a great training meeting.  In this one, we spoke about finding people, repentance, and helping people get married.  But MOST IMPORTANT, he gave us a training session on doing Good things, better things, and The best things.  (based on a slightly old but landmark talk by Elder Oaks many years ago) 

It seems as if right now our zone is going so-so right now, in District 1, we are actually having wonderfully changes in the missionaries!  So, that´s what´s new.  

  And now for a funny story!  About a year and a half ago, I lost my missionary plaque and had to buy a new one.  But, today, someone had found it!  It was found in a taxi, in a completely different zone than where I lost it, for a year and a half! But, although now it is scratched and filthy, it is back to the hands of it´s rightful owner!  I thought it was great!

And lastly!!!  For my B-Day package, I would love some fudge pop-tarts (yeah, turns out I can buy Peachie-O´s here! but only in one store!) and perhaps some lightweight gospel book.

There´s a few good ones out there, like ´the miracle of forgiveness´  or  ´in defense of truth´  or some other one, but it would please me if it were a surprise!  But it must be VERY lightweight!

And, I think you don´t need to send any more sketch books, right now I have 3 blank ones I need to fill!  But those pop tarts, maybe some other snack food,  and gospel book would make my day!

So, keep reading your scriptures, keep praying daily, and repent daily!  Repentance is such a great gift that not even the angels in heaven can repent of their sins, only those who are alive at this time in their lives!  So, in the words of Elder Holland,

 ´Don´t Delay, it´s getting late,´

I love you guys! Make a good turn daily!

-Elder Sanders

photos:  my zone at zone conference doing a wall-sit challenge,  and me in front of possibly the greatest restaurant name ever.

Week 83 !!! 21 weeks and 147 days left :)

WOW!

I have not been so busy since eras back!  So, life being a zone leader is rather exciting, more forms, more verifications to send, and more work!  But, I do love it so!  And so you know, I only have 14 missionaries in our zone, including ourselves.  Not too bad, but there are a few in there that really need help!

So, for this week, for those who know missionary work, we had a contacting week.  By that, I mean everyday was spent knocking on doors and looking for references!  What work!  But we also were able to get some fruits by the end of it!  We found a few new investigators, and one of them has a baptismal date for the 16th.  Her name is Jobi, she´s from the coast, used to live here, and attended church 2 years ago because her sister is a member. SO WE ARE WAY EXCITED!

 As for other tidbits, Elder Bloxham and I are doing wonderfully as a companionship!  Since the MTC, we have barely seen each other due to all the sectors we´ve been in, but now we are tearing it up!  LITERALLY.   Yesterday, for fun, we were running on a skinny curb and Elder Bloxham slipped, FLEW off to the side, and landed in a Barb Wire Fence!  OW!  He was mostly alright, and got a few punctures from the menacing spikes (shown in the photos attached), but he´s fine now. 

And for a nice spiritual moment, we were contacting doors on Friday, and were a bit down because it seemed no one wanted to listen to us at the moment, and those who did want to listen didn´t want to accept our message, and we eventually got to a black metal door, knocked on it, and heard from inside an old lady asking who we were.  We promptly said we were missionaries, but after a few sentences, it seemed she wasn´t interested either, and didn´t even want to open the door.  And then! Head rested on door, a bit humble, I felt that it would be good to tell her we were sent there by Christ to bring her a message.  So, I did.  Then, there was a long, silent pause.  Did I say something wrong?  Then the door sprung open, and there she was!  We began to speak with her, and ended up having a great lesson and even give her a book of Mormon.    How about that!  Just from that small impression, we had a new investigator!  Listen to the spirit!

Well, tonight we have a Super-Special capacitation (training meeting) with president Ghent, which usually isn´t common.  The Assistants called us on Saturday, and I guess that he wanted to organize a personalized meeting with our zone.  So I´m excited to see what he has for us!  I have a hunch it may be on finishing the mission to the end, because about 6 or missionaries in our zone only have a few months left in teh mission, and may be getting ´Trunky!´

So I´ll tell you next week how it goes, but it will be great!  Until then,  Elder Sanders Out!


photos: , a member´s birthday party, and us enjoying homemade sloppy-joes!