Week 14 With diligence

Hola mis queridas familia y amigos!

This week was quite the eventful week! I had my first baptism! Maria Teresa, a woman that Hrma Narvaez and I had found as we were trying to find an inactive, was baptized this past Saturday and it was truly an amazing experience! I will talk more about her later.

Open Flower Shops in Quito

Tuesday

We had a girl named Abish come with us for the day to see what it will be like in the mission field for her for when she turns her papers in. Of course, all of our appointments fell. It was pretty funny because we were apologizing to her all day about our lack of appointments. Maria had her baptismal interview and passed with flying colors but we were told that she could not get baptized because her husband did not know at all that she had been taking the missionary lessons and the church does not like letting people get baptized if the could possibly be contention with the spouse. We asked our zone leaders what to do but they never got back to us. 

We work hard! Most of the time...

Wednesday

We had our weekly planning and then went to drop a little treat and a note off at a girl´s home that we started teaching this week. She was going through a tough breakup, so we taught her about prayer Sunday night. When we got to her house, she was looking a lot happier and told us that she felt better after praying, even though it was a little weird at first. Prayer really does help! During lunch, I spent the whole time talking about flowers and growing them with our mamita, Hrma. Quilumba (you know you are a horticulture major when...). We had a lesson with a recent convert who had not come to church since she got baptized back in January. All the other times that we had tried to visit her, she did not want to talk to us but tonight, she talked about how she felt like she really needed to come back to church, not only for her but for her daughter as well. We ended up getting a call from President Richardson to see how Hrma Molinar was doing. I decided to ask him what to do about Maria and he said that she could get baptized!

My desk!

Thursday

Normally on Thursdays, we got to Quito for meetings but it was cancelled because an elder in our district needed to renew his visa. Our zone leaders called us the night before and asked if we could tell the other pair of elders in our district because they do not have a phone. We did not know where they lived but after 45 minutes of asking random people if they had seen two guys, a gringo and a Chilean with white shirts and nametags, we finally found their apartment. What a great way to spend the morning, right (hahaha)? Our mamita made me teach her how to make caramel popcorn and then told me next week, I would be teaching her how to make oreo truffles. Also, she wants to learn how to make brownies. Everyone here wants to learn and is willing to buy the stuff so that I can teach them. It is a pretty funny sight. 

Friday

We had our zone conference today and talked about the Atonement. I love when we have these types of meetings from the zone leaders because I always learn so much. For lunch, we could not go to our mamita because we would have gotten there by 4 and she cannot feed us then because she owns a shop, so we got burgers at this really good place just down the street from the chapel. We got back to Yaruquí and tried visiting all of our recent converts but none were home! We ended up teaching a member about missionary work.

Sometimes we get a little hungry during our trainings 

Saturday

We had a baptism! Well, first there was a huge, crazy parade for San Pedro. These people love doing super cultural things for their holidays. There were hundreds of people dressed up in Otavalian clothing. While setting up everything for the baptism and waiting for people to show up, we talked with Maria. She said she was super excited. After she was baptized, she was invited to bear her testimony. She said that she had attended a lot of churches but this one felt different. She knew, because she felt it, that this church is the true church! It was such a beautiful day! Maria was glowing after it was all over.

Sunday

Maria was confirmed a member of the church this morning. She is a completely different person now. She is so happy and there are members reaching out to her to help her find a job. During correlation with the branch, we were told the one of our recent converts, Evelyn, a super shy girl who did not really come to church all that much, was participating in class! My heart leapt with joy knowing that slowly she was becoming more comfortable in the church and that she was finding friends! 

My week was a really good week and we saw a lot of miracles! Have an amazing week and I hope to hear for y´all soon!

Until next time

The Strawberry Blonde Hermana