A Good Week in Cuenca

Dear Family,

Are the Evans the family that is from Cuenca?  If you could send a brand shiny new pair of army-strong missionary shoes, that would be a wonderful Christmas for Nan.  The camera hasn’t shown up either.  I was also thinking of something else I would like for Christmas.  In one of your last letters you wrote about how dad was recording violins.  I would like a Ludlam violin/Ava piano concerto to listen to on all my new music equipo (equipment).

We had a good week in Cuenca.  We found quite a few new people.  We met a new couple, Ciro and Nelida.  We went over to lunch in the house of  the Familia Cando on Tuesday .  They had invited over Ciro and Nelida, their friends, because they were having marriage problems.  They want a divorce, but we read to them in the Book of Mormon about the Doctrine of Christ and what we need to be save our souls (and their marriage).  Ciro had some problems about becoming like a child and not guarding rencor (holding grudges) and got kind of upset and left, saying that there was no alternative to divorce. 

Making Tacos with Elder Castro (2nd from left)

We kept talking with the wife afterwards and she told us that she had this feeling that there would be no happiness in getting a divorce.  She said earlier that week they had an appointment with the lawyer to finalize their divorce.  She said she knelt down to pray and plead that she would not have to go through with it.  When she got to the appointment, someone had forgotten the necessary paperwork which bought them some more time.  We haven’t been able to go to deep into the message of the restoration, but I think they felt the spirit testify really strong when we read the Book of Mormon.  The hermana agreed to meet with us tomorrow again and asked us to call the husband to try and get him to listen to us again.  When we called, he said that he had a conversation with his wife and they would both be looking forward to the visit tomorrow.  They are both ministers of their local congregation, but so far have been really open to listen to us.

We also had another reference named Nancy.  So far we’ve only been able to teach her once, but she came to church this week.  She is sympathetic with the JW’s but this week we did the Final Judgement in Gospel Principles (class at church on Sunday), so it was a really good opportunity to compare ancient and modern revelation side by side.  We’ll have to see how well she took it this week.  W also found a few young men in a part-member family called Sucuzhañai.  Javier, the son of 20 years, also came to church.  (Church attendance is twice as exciting in Cuenca).

Cristo Rey

I am afraid I won’t be able to do a pre-llamada (usually he calls us first to give us a phone number) this year.  You have to call here.  We are going to be encarcelados (imprisoned) again this year although this time it will be for even longer.  We have to be in the house after lunch on Friday and have to stay there until Monday.  We only get to leave for Sacrament meeting.  The number of the house is 011-593-87591154.  "011-593-" is the international code and 087591154 is the house number.  You have to get rid of the "0" at the beginning, though.  Looking forward to talking to you.  I don’t know if you want to send some questions ahead of time for speed and efficiency with our 45 min limit.

Well, love you a ton,

Mister Elder Ludlam