Monday, January 31, 2011

Move to Totoracocha!

Hello Family!

Elder Nuñez
I got transferred 10 blocks North of Monay to Totoracocha.  My new companion’s name is Elder Nuñez from Piura, Peru.  We are opening the sector, so for the past few days we have been getting to know the members and trying to find all the old investigators.  Before, the sister missionaries were in this sector which means now I get to live in their luxurious apartment.  It also means that there are leftover girl shoes in every room.  I’m glad I will still be in Cuenca to see my investigators from Monay when they get baptized.


We bagged a lot of these magazines
on many a service day

Totoracocha is a branch like Monay.  I don’t know how  long ago it was started in Cuenca .  For some reason, the members here are not very permanent.  Our Branch President’s name is President Fernandez.  He’s been Branch President for about as long as he’s been a member.  Our Mission Leader is an RM named Felipe Parra.  He needs some work.  There is also another Brother who owns an extreme sports magazine, but he’s on the High Council.  Then there are a lot of single sisters.  The members here have been really good about giving us references.  I think a lot of the Priesthood holders are excited that there are Elders here again because they did not get as many chances to go out and teach with sister missionaries here. I don't
know why, but this is where nearly every strong family in Cuenca started.

Look at the size of those eyes
Elder Nuñez has been great to work with.  He is from the same travel group as Elder Gonzalez and Elder Salvioli.  I’ve only had a few days to work with him.  We did not know our transfers until Wednesday and we could not get into our apartment until the next day because the sisters still had the keys, so I got to spend the day with the Zone Leaders.  One of our new Zone Leaders is Elder Carrillo, who was Elder Gonzalez’s companion after I left La Aurora, so he has filled me in on how things are in Machala.

I hope to hear from you soon,
Love Elder Grant

Monday, January 24, 2011

Family of Gold

Hello Everybody!

Has Dad been getting my emails?  I think that this is the address he gave me. 

Cecilia Calderon, Freddy Patiño and their two children
We had a good week.  We have two or three families that are progressing.  We have a new family, Patiño, that have come to church for two weeks now.  They are really excited to come.  This week only the wife could make it and had to stay in the Nursery with her son, but made friends with the whole Primary Presidency and is now anxiously waiting for us to visit her accompanied by the Presidency tomorrow.  They have been willing to obey all the commandments and have retained all the doctrine we have taught them really quickly.  It makes a missionary very happy when we show up for a lesson and our investigator has the scripture passage we left more or less memorized.  A family of gold.

Hernan has still been having trouble getting to church.  This Sunday, the Jehovah Witnesses showed up to try and visit him in the morning.  Since our first visit, Hernan has not been shy about telling us he does not like the JWs.  Hernan’s wife, who has wanted to return to the church for several years, answered the door.  She told Hernan that if he did not want to go to church, she was going to let them in.  Hernan decided to go to church.  I am still not sure if it made me worried or happy when he told us the story in Gospel Principles.  We had our branch President talk to him about preparing to bless the sacrament.  I am hoping if we give him a little responsibility, it will be easier for him to come to church.

I had a companionship exchange this week with our Zone Leader.  We found this cool family after they almost ran us over in their drive way.  They invited us in and we introduced ourselves as missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  The wife said, "Oh you’re Mormons."  She told us she had taken classes from some sister missionaries several years ago.  She brought out her old yellow-paged Book of Mormon and told us she loves the Book of Mormon.  She also had the institute manual for the Old Testament.  I am not quite sure where she found that.  She told us she loves the maps.  Anyway, yesterday, Elder Johnson, the Zone Leader told me that he returned to visit them with his companion and they accepted a baptismal date.

Elder Salvioli was surprised to find that you had written him, Mom. Apparently I haven’t been quite feel-y enough and you would like a little more information.  He’s sorry, but he can’t remember any of his Buenos Aires jargon any more.  Today was supposed to be transfers, but we probably won’t know until tomorrow.  Maybe I’ll be writing to you next week from the Galapagos.  We’ll have to see.

Hasta ver familia--

Monday, January 17, 2011

Girndle's Grinch Heart is Growing

Just a quick note to Mom and the family,

We had a zone activity today, so I don’t have that much to write.  I just wanted to thank you for your Christmas notes.  I got them this week.  I like that quote that you sent, Mom, by Elder Holland.  That is really the trickiest thing to do; getting people to open up so you can help them see how the gospel applies to them.  Sometimes it does help to ask them about their fears.  I like asking, "Do you fear death?!?"  and then slamming them with 2 Nephi 9. 

Elder Salvioli got his Christmas package this week so we had a great alfajor time.  He was pretty happy about it. Here, the indigenous mountain people have hearts that are twice the size of regular people because they have to pump so much blood because the air is thin.  Maybe if I stay here long enough, my Girndle Grinch heart will grow ‘four sizes too big’, too. 

If you could put Monica Mogrovejo on the prayer roll, she is having problems with her spouse and is afraid they my have to split up if he can’t stop his drinking problem.  Glad to hear Lia did so well on her PSAT.

Yes I do have a CD player.

I love you all so much.  I hope you always remember to be grateful for what we have.

Monday, January 10, 2011

Back to Work in 2011

Hello Family,

I am happy to hear that Livi had a great experience at her baptism. I am thinking of counting it in my weekly statistics report to President Montalti. I hope you know how important a choice this is in your life, Livi. Your Heavenly Father is very proud of you and is ready to be able to talk to you like never before in your life. You should explain to a few people here in Monay why they should get baptized, too.

Well, we found a great family. They have a lot of problems in their life, but are so hopeful that they can turn their lives around with the Gospel. When we knocked on their door, the mother told us about how she is really worried that their family will be able to stay together because of her husband’s drinking problem. After a few lessons, they told us that he has not taken a drink in the last week and every night they read from the scriptures and pray as husband and wife. They are really excited about having us come and teach them. After we shared the First Vision with them, the wife remembered how before her mother past away, she told her about long ago when two young men came to teach her and gave her a book that made her feel "the most light she had every felt in her life." She said she now realized those two young men so many years ago were us.

I had an interesting experience with my Branch President. His parents are the people who live above us and rent us the apartment we live in. They left a big box of old sheet music outside our door that I think they wanted to throw away. One day we found Presidente Reivan going through the box of music when he found his copy of November Rain from Guns 'n Roses that he had lost in the days of his rebellious youth, twenty years ago. When he learned that I played the piano, he made Elder Salvioli and I come upstairs to play it on the piano. Elder Salvioli took guitar and Presidente Reivan did the vocals. He is not quite Axl Rose, but I think that is for the best. Anyway, that was one thing I was not expecting to do here on my mission. Now I have made my confession.

It was nice to get back to the normal routine of missionary life after the holidays. It only took everyone about two days to recover from their riotous New Years. We were able to find some new investigators and work with the members again.

We had to let a bunch of our long time investigators go this week. It is always hard when you’ve had such spiritual experiences with people and you know that they know what they need to do, but they decide that they don’t want to continue on the path to baptism and joining the church, even after making huge changes in their lives and experiencing the blessings from doing so. A few of our investigators have done a full 360' and are now worse off than when we found them.

I was sure glad that Hernan was able to make it to church this week. Keeping the Sabbath day holy will be the hardest thing for him to do. He’s quite shy, and I don’t know if he feels very comfortable around all the other members. This week he started talking to a few of the members in between classes, so we hope he will get absorbed into the little Monay Mormon community.

So I guess it is Good Bye for now,
Love you all

Monday, January 3, 2011

Busting Out! Happy New Year!


Cena Navideno de la Zona -- Zone Christmas Dinner in Cuenca

Hello Family,

These last two weeks have been interesting.  We got locked up again on New Years.  We were able to find a few promising new investigators.  We finally got to teach a sister named Maria Luz who we have tried setting up an appointment with for three weeks.  She told us she was really interested in listening to us, but the abuela (grandma) has done everything in her power to stop us from coming over to teach.  She keeps lying to us. Whenever we had an appointment, somehow the abuela made it to the door first to tell us to go away.  I guess she got tired of us coming over, so one day she just told us that Maria Luz had left on a trip and would not be back for a month.  Five minutes later, Maria Luz came back from around the corner to buy bread.  

Luckly, we were just across the street talking to a contact.  Maria told us that she had been waiting for us the whole night of our missed appointment, but we never showed up. We told her that somehow we had made a mistake because her mother had told us she was not available.  At that moment, the abuela came to the door to see what all the commotion in the street was, but realized that her little scheme had been foiled, so she slowly slunk back out of sight.  When we returned for the new appointment and were able to teach, she just hid in the kitchen and glared at us through the crack in the door. Anyway, when we taught Maria Luz and her son Damien, they were really interested in the message of the Restoration.

Burning Isaac as an Año Viejo
We also found a new young woman named Ruth.  She really got excited about our message and told us, "If what you’re telling me is true, this is the best thing that has ever happened to me."  We are looking forward to teaching her again.

Well, we are glad to be free from our apartment and back out in the big world again.  I was sure glad, however, to get to hear from everyone on Christmas.  I forgot to have Luci do The Living Christ for me.  I guess you’re all back to school today.  Sorry I don’t have anything interesting to talk about this week.  People just got drunk and blew a lot of stuff up.  Everyone has fireworks here.  Really illegal ones, too.  

Familia Espinoza, our landlords
We got to burn an Año Nuevo (New Year) with the members that live in the apartment above us.  Here in Cuenca, the Año Nuevos have more meaning than they do in la Costa (the Coast).  The families all choose one member to burn that year and that person writes a last will and testament which determines who will get to inherit all their stuff.  It all represents burning the old, sinful man and starting anew.  The family we spent New Years with burned their inactive son who is studying in Quito and recently changed to a music major. I think it may have been sending him a message.  He came to church this Sunday.

Well, I hope to talk to you all soon.
Love, Elder Grant


Zona Cuenca with Presidente Montalti and Family 2010