General conference

Hello one and all! If I may say, what a great weekend!  It seems when you`re on a mission General Conference goes about 500% faster.  Whew!  But it twas powerful!

And it sounds as if things are bounding at home, with congrats to Madison in her steller play and I tip my hat to all who have been praying and studying mightily!

I always love reading your stories, from receiving answers to prayers to all the fun times you are having, I am SO very appreciative. 

Anyways, this week was rather good, as in rather normal.  We contacted, had lessons fall, and then, come Saturday...   WE HAD A BAPTISM!  Yes, Favian (sorry, last time I wrote Fabian) was baptized by my companion.  (unfortunately, I didn`t have my camera, so my companion will send them to me soon)   But it went great.  We got to watch conference in English in our own reserved room, and there were also a couple other baptisms that same day from other sectors.  All in all, it went well. But the members in South America don`t quite seem to see that General Conference is 5 different sessions, not just one. Sunday morning, it was packed!  But the rest of all the others were rather... well, pitiful.  But all was well!

AND! The Priesthood session was a great experience for us.  A half an hour before it began, we soon found out there was no signal.  We waited, and then we waited some more, but there was still none.  We tinkered with buttons and wires, and still to no avail.  The starting time came, and people began to stand up and get restless, walking about as nothing happened.  15 minutes passed, and then we decided it was time for Priesthood action.  We gathered the missionaries into one room, said a power prayer, and then gathered everyone back into the foyer.  We then pronounced that we were to do a special musical number.  We sang ´Brightly Beams our Father`s mercy` (technically, ´Rayos de Clemencia´)  and on the last verse, we heard a familiar voice.  An Apostle!  Yes, after our prayer and during our hymn, when the spirit was invited to come in, the signal returned and conference commenced.            So, God`s answers prayers!  Especially when we are ready for them and need them!  A great experience...

Well, the sector is still going, the only wildlife we see are dogs and the ants that are infesting our kitchen, and things with my comp were improving really well, and then it all fell again.  Curses!  Well, this next week are changes, so I`ll see if we stay or go!

UNTIL NEXT WEEK MATIES!!

-Elder Sanders

PS- Photos:
Me and my companion when we are happy,
Me and a very large Ecuadorian swine
A conference sketch of Spiderman (I also drew a crazy good one of President Monson, but gifted it away to the other Elder from Lehi before I could photograph it)
 I standing majestically over a part of our grand sector.
And I trying to contact a hard working citizen of Pelileo Grande.

PSS- I AM LOVING MY CHRISTMAS PACKAGE!! Legos, Markers, YES! 

PSSS- And as for my spanish, it`s really well in lessons and with members, but for some reason around my companion my comprehension just slags.  I don`t know if there`s a connection or not.  :)

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. 

MONTH 8 !!! 34 weeks !!!

Greetings one and all!  This is your pal, Elder Sanders.

So, before I get into the meat of the letter, congrats to the Plowman`s family on thier new member!  And also my family, and all others! (just because I love ya`all!)   And THAT^S why I could never find my package in the mail. 
(Well, you should resend the T-shirt and Legos, but perhaps for the candy you could just send a small box, those are usually pretty affordable, and be sure to put pictures of Jesus and the Virgen on the box, it`s the security label of south America!)


OK!  Now to explain the title of my letter...

    So, this past week with Elder Housley was great.  In fact, it was stupendous!  Not necessarily because we had a lot of success, (the only success we had was overcoming our sicknesses!), but because of how good friends we`ve become.  It`s crazy how much we have in common!  From hobbies, to quoting songs and movies, and even a love of Legos!  Yes, it was quite nice.  And also, the mission of Quito, Ecuador has been going through quite the metamorphosis!  We had changes 2 weeks ago, and then random changes started to happen the next week, and A LOT of people were being interviewed by the President of the mission. After a week, 7 people in our zone changed!  And many people from other zones, with many district leaders and zone leaders being changed to junior companion and other new people taking their places. 

 But, Elder Housley and I were glad, for we both knew that we were being righteous. We believed all the changes evolving around us would not touch us.  And so here we were, Sunday night visiting all our investigators with a baptismal date as a zone, when the dreaded news came.   Elder Sanders was being sent away to Ambato!  NO!!!        

  But, that also means that Elder Housley and I, the duo of destiny, were to be separated!  And it had only been 2 weeks!  It was like a cannonball to my soul!  So, today was full of distain and despair as I left my beloved sector to Ambato, an area outside of Quito next to an apparently active volcano.  ( Just to joke with Mom :)  )  

BUT! My new companion is named Elder Carcini, a missionary from Southern Mexico, and we shall definitely have some great adventures in this new area! 

  So, I do feel a little sad about the change (and grumpy about the Christmas package :)  (Oh Edens Christmas package came back to our house this week :(  ),

 but it is the mission!  So we shall continue working and all the missionaries here will be righteous once again! 
Because 2 weeks ago President Ghent announced something called the miracle of March, which is the promise that every missionary will baptize this month.  Whether it be one convert of seven, that`s the plan that`s going to happen.  I assume that all these changes and problems are happening because the adversary does not want this to happen.  Yes, there is a lot of opposition, and I think it may be because the mission really is going to be reaping in a lot of new baptisms soon, so I hope all goes well.

Well, that`s just about I have to say for now, and wish you all a very jolly evening!

-Elder Sanders

PS:  All the photos today are my last memories of Guamani:  our house, a rustic shed in our yard, and ´El Pan Quemado´, a famous bakery by our house.  (and for those of you that don`t speak spanish, El Pan Quemado translates into `The Burnt Bread´ ) :)

week 31 eden is sick :(

¡Buenas Tardes mis queridos hermanos y hermanas! ¿Come le van?  M-Hm. ¿No hableis español? Ok.

Good Afternoon my beloved Brothers and Sisters! How is it going?  

   Well, this week was rather interesting.  For good news, Pedro was Baptized!  WOOT!  He was so happy!  We were a little disorganized with the program, but we had a great baptismal service in the end.    I was able to do the ordinance, and a lot of his family showed up, along with a group of members.  Yes, only 7 of about 70 members we invited made it, but we were very glad those who made it came.  That was our grand highlight of the week.   (Our ward is so good!  I´ll have to send pictures later because we forgot our cameras in the flurry of getting ready and had to borrow the camera of another Elder.  He still hasn´t sent the pictures yet...  )

  But!  Now to explain the title of my letter.  Elder Housley and I are great.  The best of buds, and we were getting very excited our first day together because we had so much in common.  Then, come Wednesday, disaster struck!  Not of the dangers of the world, but a battle within!  Elder Sanders was stricken with a powerful illness!  What ranged from a sore throat, to a fever, to an upset stomach creamed him for the day!     So I was completely out of commission for that day, and then as I started to slowly recover, my companion was struck with disease also!  So here we were, waking up for 3 days in a row with clogged sinuses, runny noses, and sore throats, struggling to get to lessons or do anything. It was rather dramatic, and rather was a downer. So, all in all, the missionary work this week was rather slow.  It was also probably the worst way to bond in our first week together, but at least we bonded. 

  So!  That was our adventurous story for the week.  Thanks for your letters, and it sounds like you guys are having a fabulous time in the snow at home.  And congrats to Devin McCandless!  You were baptized the same day as our investigator here in Ecuador!   And I hope Grandma is feeling better, we´ll be sure to pray for her down here.   And by the 13th of March, I´ll have 8 months in the mission!  Tis´ odd.  Time in the mission is like building a snow man.  You start with a little snow ball, and it feels slow and tedious at the start, but as time tarries on, it grows larger and larger, and the momentum expounds in a full sprint as your giant snowball flies down a steep hill!     That´s how it is.    I really hope everyone is doing well up there, it sounds like school, work, and other activities are going really well.  

  And!  As to close with a spiritual thought, take up your Book of Mormon and find 2 Nephi 4, and then read the 2nd half.  It´s about verse 20ish and on.  It´s nicknamed ´The Psalm of Nephi´ Because it´s just him pouring out his soul about the Lord.  It´s really easy to over miss, but it´s full of great perspective.  We all see Nephi as this strong and super righteous leader, but here in this chapter is him pouring out how distraught he feels at his  weaknesses!  It is definitely a full-throttle wake up call to anyone who reads it and takes it to heart.  You guys will love it!

Well, that is all for the moment, and I´m sorry I don´t have many pictures because I was out of it for most of the week, and still awaiting the baptismal photos, but I shall write again! (The pictures are of this crazy cool fruit here, my companion, and a picture I just drew. Random, but good)   

Just remember LOMA:  Leer, orar, mandamientos, y asistencia.  But to translate it´s:   Read, Pray, Commandments, and Attend, as in Read your scriptures, pray daily, keep the commandments, and attend church!  Do it, and you shall prosper in the land!

-Elder Sanders