What Nan's Thinking About

Dear Family,

How are you?  We are off today to take out an uñero (ingrown toenail).

We are trying to help reactivate a hermana (sister) in our ward and then baptize her kids, but progress is difficult.  She came to church yesterday, but doesn’t want to accept the Book of Mormon.  She always comes up with interesting reasons why she thinks what she is reading isn’t original.  We have decided we probably shouldn’t focus so much on her testimony of the Book of Mormon and just commit her and her family to start following the commandments, since that’s really what’s important. 

We did have some good Bible bashing last night, though.  Christ is the God of the Old Testament.  You can see God.  Our spirits don’t die.  None of these things are really the point of the gospel or are really that important, but at least we set the record straight.  I figure if we can get her to use the Book of Mormon to teach the different principles she needs to live, and she lives them, then she will not have any problem accepting the Book of Mormon.  She is reading and coming to church after all.  

I am grateful for prayer.  I have been trying recently to get daily instruction through prayer.  When you know what you need to do and Who is asking you to do it, it is easier to get work done. That’s what Nan’s thinking about.
 

Feely

I realized I need to do better at celebrating the triumphs of others.  Sometimes I forget we are all on the same team even when I don't like how some people do things in the church.  There are differences of administration of gifts, but it is the same God who worketh it all.  I think I just need to focus on doing what the Lord wants me to do, no matter how large or small.
 

Well, I love you all.

Brother Nan

Prepare for Your Interview

Grant didn't write a formal letter last week due to our attempts to communicate with him by phone on Mother's Day.  I just posted his little blurb of 5/14/12 for posterity's sake!

Dear Family,

I am sorry to hear that Granny has passed away.  I guess it is true that she was ready to go.  I had been feeling this was going to happen for the past few months.  I am glad I was able to send something to her.

It was great to get to talk to you all last week, although I like how we did it in the past more.  I would have liked to have been able to have talked with everyone one on one.  It was harder to talk to everyone at once. I guess that is how we are supposed to teach as missionaries, focus on people one by one.

Jenny Gomez and her daughter Melisa

I really like the note you sent in the last package I received where David O. McKay talks about how our PP interview with Christ will be.  One of the very effective tactics that PMG and Presidente Montalti have taught is that we need to focus our teaching on the questions for the entrevista bautismal (baptimsal interview).  Not only does it help make the investigators more comfortable about the interview, it helps the missionaries know where the investigator is struggling and what they need to teach.  I guess the same is true for our entrevista celestial (celestial interview).  Everything we do with our investigators we can ask, ¿is this helping my investigator to be better prepared to answer one of the baptismal questions?  We can ask ourselves the same thing about our final interview.  It is good to have the questions ready.

Fernando Silva, far left, next to Rafael Suarez

This week we have been teaching a man named Rafael "Chalupa" Suarez.  He is an ex futbolista and had a bad knee surgery and is waiting for funding to repair it.  He has been really receptive. He said he is not that proud of everything he’s done in the past (I think he feels empty from his soccer career) and wants to spend the last of his days tranquilo (in peace) and just get to church every Sunday.  We are happy for him.  I think he is going to buy a white shirt and tie this week.
 

Feely

This week I talked with Elder Packard about Perfectionism.  He said if I learn to 1. be more and more assertive in my interactions with others and 2. learn to set realistic expectations for myself and for others, then I will feel less and less anger and fear.  I need to learn to stop criticizing myself and others.  I am still kind of struggling with it all though.  I got really frustrated the other day for not studying well enough how I can balance working hard with enjoying what I am doing in my life.  It seemed kind of ironic to me.

Anyway, I love you all,

Hey you, mister 123

Phone Problemas

We tried all Mother's Day to reach Grant on his cell phone, but were not able to get through.  We received this message the following morning.  We had a wonderful visit with Grant on the phone Monday evening.  We were even able to Sykpe Daddy B in from New Jersey.

Dear Family,

I am sorry about the call.  Our phone sometimes has some problems. Would it be easier for me to just call you from a phone booth?  I don't have permission to do Skype.  I don't even know how to get in.  I could write later if they tell me I can do it. I was thinking of just calling you at 5-6 pm.  Is there anyway Dad could do a conference call? 

Love, Grant

Grant Why Writes Again!

Dear Family,

They still haven’t told us anything about Mother’s Day.  Here’s my number: 084470638.  Is there some way you can do a three-way call with Bup on the line?  That’s a lot of international calling.  EEUU to Italy to Ecuador.  I forgot to set up a calling schedule with the other three missionaries.  I was thinking you could call at 9:30 pm at my time.  That way it wouldn’t interfere with missionary time.  I still have the old pink pictures camera.  Hello Livi!

Everything is going well here.  We had a ward council meeting last week.  That’s a big deal.  Elder Velasquez and I are still looking for new people.  We found one lady that really likes the church and the Book of Mormon, but is being stubborn about baptism.  We are trying to discern what is holding her up.  Alma 12:7.  That’s the scripture they always have us study about spiritually discerning needs.  We had another lady we thought was doing great until she disappeared Sunday morning.

Good news to hear about the birthday package!  Did you know that Elder Velasquez and I have the same birthday? (wish I would have known!)

Well, family I love you all.  I am guessing they’ll let us write again if there are any developments with calling arrangements.  I’m excited to hear from you …

Dear Levi and Holt,

How are you guys doing?  My mom sent me some photos of your trip to the beach.  It looked like you had some fun.  Sorry there were only sisters.  My family is short on guys.  I heard you've all been pretty big into school sports.  Is there some pretty good competition up there?  Here there are only two sports.  Soccer and volleyball.  Here they don't play by the normal rules.  They have their own version called Ecua-volley, which is a girlier version of regular volleyball.  They like to block off the entire street to play.  Have you ever liked soccer that much?  We aren't allowed to do sports in this mission. 

Anyway, I was wondering what you two were thinking about doing a mission.  I guess it still seems like a long time off, but you can start getting ready right now.  Do they have seminary up there?  Going on a mission could be the best decision of your life.  What are we going to do about my family moving to NJ?  I don´t know what I´ll do when I get back to see the whole Oregon gang.  When I go to school at BYU, I guess I´ll be a little closer.  Well, I thought I'd just send you a quick note.  Hope you write back.  Remember to take good care of your mom.

Love,
Elder Leaky-Boots

Mucho cariño,

Grant Why the Science Guy

Grant's "trunky papers" came to us this week from the travel office.  He will be flying to Newark via Miami on September 4th! 

Great Stake Conference

Dear Family,

The stake conference was really great.  Elders Marcus B. Nash, D. Todd Christofferson, and Richard G. Scott all talked.  I liked how it was so directed specifically to Ecuador. 

Elder Nash talked about how the members of Ecuador need to remember they are an important part of the Lord’s covenant people and have been promised all the blessing that go with that.  He talked about the importance of living the first principles and ordinances of the gospel.  He shared a story about a Guayaquil family he met.  One evening, the father was sitting in a chair outside of his house, offering a silent prayer for help in overcoming his Word of Wisdom problems that were destroying his family.  Two elders appeared walking down the street and began talking with the man.  They taught the message of the Restoration, left him a Book of Mormon and continued on their way.  Even though the man’s wife did not want anything to do with the Book of Mormon or the missionaries when he told her about them, he decided to read that night.  When the missionaries came back for their second visit, he was ready with questions.  Shortly afterwards, the whole family was converted except for one son, who waited a few months before he, too, decided to leave behind his previous religion (playing soccer in the street on Sundays). 

I just loved that story because I realized it just seems so real.  It made me grateful for the similar experiences I’ve had on my mission and it made want to go out and start contacting.  Elder Scott gave a talk parecido a su discurso de Abril 2011 (similar to his April 2011 talk) about his wife and family.  That was everybody’s favorite talk.  Everyone talked about the young men needing to serve missions.  This was a great topic because there were quite a few future elders there.

Well, Elder Velasquez and I will be here for another change (transfer).  We may be moving to a newer, nicer house this week that is in our proselyting area.  I am hoping that for my last few transfers they will send me out into the country to finish.  I would like to get to know that part of Ecuador.

Feely
Recently I've been working thought detention with Elder Packard.  That's identifying thoughts or feelings that make you sad and then replacing them with healthy true thoughts.  Bad thoughts are thinking I've wasted all my time on my mission and haven't changed enough and healthy thoughts are realizing the ways that I have changed for the better.  Well, my time is up.  It took me awhile to write this.  I am not sure what you want to do about Mother's day.  I am guessing it'll just be easier to do it by phone.  We can't use members' computers.  I know this will make you mad, but I also wanted to keep to the 45-minutes rule.  I'd like to at least obey it one time in my mission.

Love,

Elder G

GA's Make Me Giddy

Well, somehow I just deleted my whole email.  I will try and rewrite it at light speed.  Please forgive the spelling.  When is Sophie’s departure date?  She’ll be right there for the second coming.

This next week we are having a special satellite conference for just Ecuador.  They are treating it as a Stake Conference, but it will be conducted from SLC.  Also, we are hoping Elder Piños will come in June to visit the mission.  Lots of GAs (General Authorities) in such a short time makes me giddy.

These past few weeks we have been teaching a guy named Jorge.  We have been teaching him with the Zone Leaders because he lives on the border of our area and we are not sure which ward he belongs in.  (Actually we are sure.  He belongs in our ward, but the zone leaders get to talk with the Stake President every week so they took him.)  Every time he has had problems with keeping the commitments, the have said to us, "I think he really does belong to your ward," and then hand us his teaching record.  Later, when they would hear that he was reading and praying again, they’d make us surrender the teaching record and take over his enseñanza (teachings). 

Last week he got baptized.  We got to talk with him the other day.  When people receive a remission of their sins, it really opens up a whole new world for them.  I like just listening to him talk about his plans for his new life (Mosiah 5:3).  He comes from a part-member family and they always say that they thought he’d be the last person in the family to get baptized.  From being pretty anti-Mormon, now all he wants in life is for his son to go on a mission and for his family to go together to the temple so they can get sealed to his hijo fallecido (deceased son).  He can be happy now that he can see so many opportunities to enjoy life that he couldn’t see in his previous lifestyle.  The gospel changes people.

(abbreviated) Feely
This past week I've been pretty angry with some ward member for several separate incidents that happened last Sunday.  I spent the week kind of bitter and just hoping Id get transferred next week.  One of the people I was mad at was the Bishop.  I had been struggling to try and get rid of my bad feelings but I just couldn't let it go.  (Having sympathetic whining sessions with our Elders who had had problems with him in the past did not do much to help)  Yesterday, he went out to visit with us.  As we finished one of our lessons, I looked down to find my bag to put away my scriptures when I found the Bishop packing up my bag for me.  He bent down, picked up my umbrella on the floor, gave me a wink, and handed me my things.  I was really surprised how effectively that small service helped dissipate any negative feelings I was experiencing.  I might have gone through another whole week of just being angry, but that one small act of kindness just made life so much easier for everyone.  It made everything a little brighter.
 
Well, I was going to try and write to Holt and Levi, but I think I’ll have to wait until next week.

Love, Elder Nu Nu

The Perplexities of Grant's Mind

Dear Family,

Fabricio Jara and his abuelo, hermano Angel "Trompeta"

I liked the beach pictures.  How did you get so many ding-bats up in the air at once?  I am going through Holt envy right now.  Tell Levi he's a stud.  So did Dad just make it through his first NJ transmuting adventure?  I need to talk about something that hurts Nan's heart a lot.  I think I need to go through all your letters and clean out because my suitcases are pretty full.  Did you say that you had been saving all my dear elders on your computer?  I think I am just going to save all the homemade pieces of love.  I only get to take home one suitcase and one carry-on.

Well, this was a crazy week.  This was the first time I had problems with a kid getting scared of the water in the font.  We got Karen to church. She's the girl I told you about last week.  After it was all over, we asked her how she liked it and she said she wasn't too impressed, but then we got the ward missionaries (all the young people in our ward are ward missionaries) to go over and visit her and then they went to an institute activity.  After they had visited, we asked again how she liked church and she said it was great and couldn't wait for next week.  I guess something changed.  We are going to try and teach her friend today.  I think she was impressed after seeing Karen so excited.  We've been trying to gear ourselves back up into" finding mode."  Last night we got a bunch of good references from different member families.  We´ll have to see how the week goes.

Cristhian Vitores, Jeramiah, Yamilet, Jixxsya

Hey, llamada número 4 ya viene (the 4th phone call is coming up!).  And guess what.  We get to use Skype.  I am not sure how to set it all up, but I am guessing we'll just do it Monday and I can go to an internet cafe.

Feely
I was thinking the other day about how as Elders we get to be buddies with just about everyone.  We can just go up to people and start talking about them without making a big deal who they are or what they've done.  Our message is for everyone.  After getting back home from your mission, Mom, how did you feel that that missionary ability changed?  Did you go back to seeing people like you did before the mission, or did you change?  Just something I've been thinking about lately.

I've also been thinking about getting ready in the morning.  For some reason I can't seem to find enough time to get ready in time.  I think I had that problem in getting all my lacrosse gear ready.  I've been trying to figure out why I have the tendency to get kind of spacey and stare off for a while and then lose track of time thinking about something and then be late.  Well, those are the perplejedades de Nan's mente (perplexities of Grant's mind).  Anyway, I love you all.

I sent José's picture with his family.  He's doing great.