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--

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.

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

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



Climbing Cerro Plateado

Elders climbing up Cerro Plateado

This is where the aliens landed!

Today we hiked up this hill.  It is special because it has a big cross on it.

Top of Cerro Plateado





Christmas is Coming!

Hello Family,

How are you all doing?  I just got a bunch of letters from as far back as November 7.  Some were regular mail, but some were dearelders, too.  Would you mind writing the date at the end?  Sometimes dearelder does it automatically and sometimes it does not.

Opening a granadilla,
a type of passion fruit

Well, someone asked me to talk about all the different foods I have eaten.  So far I have tried fish eyes, chicken feet, cow stomach lining, cow tongue, cow cow, cuy, chifles (fried banana chips), patacones (fried bananas that have been smashed and fried again), and a bunch of fruits starting with guaya- (guayas, guayana, guayabana, etc.)  Here in the sierra, they eat a lot of canguil (popcorn).  They use it in their soups a lot.  I also had a tangerine so huge it would put most grapefruits to shame.  The member that gave it to us said most people are scared of the giant tangerines because they are so ugly, but they are actually really good.

View from above the Agüello's house

This past Sunday, we had to help the family that was feeding us make dinner.  They have five sisters and one brother.  It reminded me a little bit of making Sunday dinner back home.  Not to be "tronqui", I just wanted to let you all know you did not have to worry any more because I have found Andean replacements for each and every one of you.  (I am guessing I will be hearing from you about this comment on Saturday!)

Speaking of which, I am told that I am supposed to call you a few days before Christmas to give you the number and time to call here so you can me.  Calls from the states are a lot cheaper than calls to the states.  I am not really sure why, this is just what the other elders have told me to tell you, so you can expect a five minute surprise call in the next few days.

I look forward to talking to you all on Saturday,

Love, Elder Grant

Caroling in the Park

Hello Ludlams,

We had Zone Conference this week.  It took up a lot of time, but we still got some good work done.  

Hernan's Baptism with Pres. Reiban, his wife, and son Sebastian

This week many of our investigators gained their testimonies. Hernan works in a bank, so he showed Elder Salvioli and I how he checks dollar bills to see if the are genuine.  He gave us a bunch of pamphlets on the security features of US currency so we could go home to verify all our money.  Hernan decided that he wants to join the church.  We asked him if he knew that Joseph Smith was called as a prophet and that the church he organized was the same church that existed in the time of Christ.  At first, he had to think about it and was not really sure.  He started saying what he thought about what he had read from the Book of Mormon and how it had changed the way he looked at the world.  He said that he felt something different when he studied it and then he just said, "Yes, I know that Book of Mormon is true and Joseph Smith was a prophet of God."  Then his wife, who was a member before, but never really had a testimony, said that now she, too, knew that these things were true.  

Parque Calderon is where we went caroling

We went caroling in a park as a zone activity.  We had about two or three missionaries taking turns, passing out pamphlets and explaining who we are as missionaries and what we teach while everyone else sang.  It was pretty cool to see benches full of people reading about the restoration of the Gospel as we sang "The Spirit of God" snuck in between "Silent Night" and "Hark the Herald Angels Sing."  We got some good references from the activity.

This week was Stake Conference.  We had an Area Authority come to speak. President Montalti also spoke.  During the Zone Conference, he told us that we had better give all our investigators a baptismal date before Stake Conference or he would give them one for us.

Well, I hope to hear from you all soon,

Love, Ñaño Nan (your Ecuadorian brother) 

Che Set Everything Straight!

Hola Familia,

I am sorry about the letter last week.  We did not have much time to write after we got back from our little bout with idolatry.  Today I just got back from the office.  I had to travel to Guayaquil to do some paperwork to stay here legally.  I got to see all the office elders again and meet the new assistant to the president, Elder Maguire.  How did you all like the First Presidency devotional?  We arrived in Guayaquil to just here the end of President Eyring’s talk and President Monson’s closing remarks.

These past two weeks we found a few new families to teach.  Hernan Cumbe is probably the fastest progressing investigator.  He came to church this weekend and had a good experience.  His wife is a less active member who came to church with him this Sunday.  They both had a really good time and she started to remember the blessings that come from being an active member. They both are struggling to gain their own testimony.  They both have said they appreciate what they feel when we teach and what they feel in church, but still need the spiritual confirmation of the truth of the Church.  Since this was fast and testimony meeting, I think it really helped them to hear the members bearing their testimony. 

We also found a new couple who own an electronics store, Cristian and Cristina Guaman.  They are one of those mythical Ecuadorian couples who are actually married and not just living together.  Anyway, they are really interested in the message and have turned away quite a few customers so they could pay attention and listen to us when we are teaching them.  Diana got married this week, but is beginning to have doubts about joining the church.  She is not sure she wants to give up all the things in her life that she would have to forgo to join the church. This week we are going to focus on helping our investigators realize all the blessings that come from living faithfully as a member and encouraging them to gain a testimony of their own.

Monay chapel under construction

We have had some problems explaining the first vision, the Book of Mormon, and its significance to us today.  A lot of people have said to us, “If you say that “San José” really had a vision where he was told not to join any church, I believe you.”  Some religious traditions die hard. President Montalti has counseled us to try and give each investigator a baptismal date in our first visit.  Sometimes the people don’t like it, but it has really helped us to know where we need to help them grow in faith.

It is really surprising how many people recognize us as messengers of the Lord here.  When we can get them to understand our real purpose and the significance of what we teach, they gain a desire to find out what direction the Lord wants them to take.  It is always touching at the end of a lesson when we ask them to pray and they sincerely ask for guidance from Heaven.

As preparation for the new Preach My Gospel, our zone leaders have asked us to work on using more questions and really having dynamic discussions with our investigators.  I like using questions to help investigators to realize important principles, but sometimes it really backfires.  It really is a skill to follow the guidance of the Spirit to control the flow of a discussion so that an investigator can contribute the eternal truths that they have learned in preparation to hear the gospel without basing the entire lesson in their beliefs.  So far we have been told a few interesting points of view:

"Hasta la victoria siempre"
Che wears the logo of Quiteño
soccer team La Liga

* There are secret Mormon symbols in the dollar bill and that the founding fathers were all Mormons.  No, sorry, those are the Masons.

* 400 years ago, it took months to travel across the Atlantic.  Now we can do it in a few hours.  So, logically, in the next 2000 years, we will be able to fly in a spaceship to get to heaven.  How is that for a 21^st century Tower of Babel?

* Christ first came to Earth to atone for all our sins, but something happened and it didn’t work so there is still sin in the world.  Christ then came back to Earth as Che Guevarra (Argentine Marxist revolutionary) to set everything straight.

Well, good bye for now family.  Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving up in Canby with all the sweet potatoes.  We get to eat a lot of camote (sweet potatoes) down here, too.

Love you all.

Great Tidings of Great Joy

Dear Family,

Great Tidings of Great Joy: The Peru package made it through after all.  Thank you for all your letters.  Even if they were all a little old, I was still glad to hear from you all.  I liked the Ecuadorean Hollow Kitty.

Well, Cuenca is quite different than the coast.  The people here all live faster lives and work all day, every day, which makes it hard to ever find people for a follow-up appointment or to work with the members.  This has been our biggest problem this week.  Elder Salvioli has been great to work with.  He keeps pushing us to try and fit as many appointments in as possible and is really good about setting goals and thinking of new ideas to improve how we work as a companionship and then following through with them.  We did a lot of contacting this week.  Up until now, I had not done too much contacting.  The only times would be when an appointment would fall through.  Right before I got here, Elder Salvioli and his companion cleaned out their list of investigators who were not progressing, so this week we rebuilt our program.  We have a lot of prospective future investigators that we have appointments with this week, so hopefully we will be able to focus on teaching people more than finding them.

To me, it seems like the people that we actually teach here are a lot more prepared to hear the gospel.  Either they don’t want anything to do with us or they are genuinely interested in what we have to say.  When we teach them the message of the Restoration and they hold in their hands the Book of Mormon, you can see in their eyes that this is what they have been looking for in their life.  In the coast, just about everyone would let you into their house to teach, but would never really listen to what you were saying.  The problem in Cuenca is that everyone here is die-hard Catholics.  They will accept Joseph Smith as a prophet of God, but insist they will still die Catholic.  So far we are teaching:

• Cristian, a young man who has been questioning if there is a God and if there really is a way to find happiness in this life.  Unfortunately, he will be out of town this week, so it will be a while before we can teach him again.
• Pedro, a chauffeur who has studied with many different religions, but has not found anyone who he felt really had the power to teach the true word of God.  He is willing to believe in the Restoration of the Gospel, but has told us that he is not going to just believe us simply on our word, but is going to pray for an answer from God (something that Elder Salvioli and I were more than agreeable to).  He asked us if there was a prayer service of ours he could attend to try and learn more about us.  “Well, as a matter of fact...”  Whoever said that extending commitments was tough? 
• Diana, one of Elder Salvioli`s old investigators who is dating an inactive member.



Cuy or Guinea Pig

• The family Hidalgo, who are ready to be baptized, but are still working on getting a visa so they can get their marriage license.  They are really excited about the church and keep asking for more doctrinal books to read.

These are the people we have had the best lessons with.  There was one other man, Sergio, who mistook us for his pastors.  We taught him the first lesson and he was receptive to the message, but I think his real pastors found out and now he doesn’t want to listen.  Hopefully he will still read the Book of Mormon to find out for himself.

The birthday girl, Hna Cedillo, cooking cuy

This week will be difficult because this is the week Ecuador is having their national census, which means that all the churches are going to be closed down.  We can’t leave our house all day Sunday.  We won’t be able to progress with any of our investigators until next week.  This week we are going to work on finding ways to confirm our appointments and to make sure our time working with members is well spent.  We had a few days where all our appointments we had planned with a member fell through and we had to just do contacting with the members. 

Right now, Monay is just a branch, so I don’t have the luxury of having a little fleet of ward missionaries at my disposal like in Machala.  Mostly we have worked with the Branch Presidency, who sacrifices a lot to be able to help us, but they still can only do so much.  They are building a chapel for Monay which should be ready in a few months.  They are hoping they can become a ward soon.

View from her parents' cabin

After I write to you, I will get to try my first Cuy.  A family in the branch wants to watch us cook our own cuy.  Cuy is only popular up here in the Sierra.  Now I can check this off of my Must-Do Ecuadorian checklist.  I still need to get mugged and to have banana related digestion problems.

Well, until next week, lots of love from your Andean brother.

Transfer to Cuenca

Hello Family,

Elder Salvioli

I’m on the move again!  I just got reassigned to Cuenca.  I am working in the Molay sector, which is where Elder Gonzalez started his mission.  My new companion is another Argentinean, Elder Salvioli. Cuenca is quite different than either Guayaquil or Machala.  It is cooler, has lots of hills, and has no stray animals in the streets.  I am excited to start working here.  They are splitting Machala into two sectors and Elder Gonzalez is going to be the new Zone Leader. 

Cuenca, Azuay, Ecuador

(Cuenca, the 3rd largest Ecuadorean city, is up in the Andean highlands, 8300 feet above sea level.  The four rivers that make up the original Spanish name of this city are part of the Amazon river watershed.  Check out the new weather gadget...quite a change in temps!)

This week was a little slower.  I got to spend some time with Elder Snow, the new elder.  He speaks Spanish really well and we hit it off.  We have a lot of the same interests in music and school.  He is going to the Y, so we will have to meet up there again. 

Sign says "Don't leave trash here"

I had an experience with the converting power of the Book of Mormon.  Elder Gonzalez and I were going to a second appointment with an investigator, but we learned that he had been evicted so we decided to just teach the new family living there.  We did not teach much, just said what we do as missionaries and left them a Book of Mormon and told them to read it and pray to know if it was true.  When we came back, we asked the father if he had read and prayed.  He said he had.  We asked how he had felt during his prayer.  He said he felt the same way as when he first met us and then again after we came back.  He said he thought that this feeling is what was missing in his life and he wanted to become a member of our church.  Then I got transferred. 

If only we could get all our investigators to read and pray.  On my first day with President Montalti, he told me that people here don’t like to read and that challenging people to read would be one of the biggest struggles with investigators.  

Zone Activity at a Mexican Restaurant Back:Elders Velasco, Salvioli, Caal, Diaz, Ferrero, Jenkins, Ruiz, Ludlam; Front: Elder Kjar, Hnas Haggard, Glanzer, Elders Robinson, Johnson, Hnas Deninson, Castillo, Elder Badger

Well, I am excited to be working in this new sector.  It will be a different kind of experience.  I still will get to drink mate every night, though, so not too much will have changed.  Look forward to talking to you all soon.  Love, Elder Ludlam