A Family of Eight

Most beloved family,

How are you all today?  I passed by the office the other day to renew my visa so I got some early mail.  I got the most recent letter from the 9th.  I am still missing letters from three weeks before that though, so I will probably be hearing about your pre-sibling reunion activities soon. 

It was an interesting experience getting my visa.  Elder Heaps and I both came to the office to get them renewed on Wednesday, Oct 12.  I think that was the same day I arrived in Guayaquil exactly one year ago.  At about 11:30 am, as Elder Heaps and I began climbing the stairs to go up to the mission office, Elder Heaps told me, “At this time exactly one year ago, we came up these stairs for the first time.”  A lot has happened since then.

Well, we had a good week here.  We have about finished up with all the investigators from the last transfer and are starting to look for new people to work with in November.  The less active family strategy is still giving fruit.  We have some good people; we are just having some problems getting them to church.  We are going to try and involve the ward council more in our teaching appointments this week.

Elder Johnson had to go downtown today to get his censo (census) and identification.  They also gave us portable DVD players to watch the Preach My Gospel videos as part of our study sessions.  Aniñado, I know.  Somos pelucones aqui en Guayaquil Sur (We are big shots here in Guayaquil South).

I was able to talk to Elder Liberato today.  His companion was also getting his censo.  He told me something really cool.  On our last night together, we found a new family.  We did not have anything to do that night, so we decided to just contact and look for new people.  We saw an elderly man outside his house so we started talking to him and he invited us in.  He liked the message and accepted a baptismal date.  After they pulled us out of Los Esteros and brought in the sister missionaries, his whole family, eight people, were all baptized and they were able to remember Elder Liberato's name and track him down in another part of Guayaquil to ask him to baptize a few members of their family.  In all our 2.5 weeks together we worked with quite a few people, but none of them continued with the lessons.  It was literally our last hour together that we found them.  I guess that right when we finished up everything we had to do -- we got pulled out.  I thought it was interesting.

Well, I hope to hear from you all soon.  Hope everyone is reading their scriptures.  Je Je

Su Guayaco favorito,

Nannel