South American Culture Story

A lot of parents here tape Virgin Mary stickers all over the packages to their missionaries here because then the postal people are too scared to open it up to steal stuff.  My companion's family sent him a huge box of candy, covered in virgin stickers a couple of weeks ago.

As we were walking around town, this lady sees the box from across the street and calls for my companion to stop.  She comes over and points to the box and says, "Can you please give me one of those?"  My companion asked what she wanted.  She said, "I want some of those stickers. Do you have any more in your box?"  My companion told her he didn't have stickers in the box.  "What do you have in box, then?" she asked.  "They are books about the Bible, aren't they? Can I have one, please?"  My companion said no, it's just a bunch of candy.  The woman looked at the ground confused for a second and then said, "Oh...can you please give me one?"  We gave her a Book of Mormon.

Plantains Ahead

Hello Family,

And still the move goes on.  I hope you are all hanging in there.  At least no one has had heat stroke this time.

Today a sister in the ward showed us how to make some Ecuadorian recipes.  We learned how to make colada, a drink with oatmeal, carrots, tomato, and Maracuyá. Delicious. We also learned how to make  menestra de lentejas. That’s something we eat almost every day and is a personal favorite of Elder Brooks.  She asked us what we wanted to learn, so I asked for these because I thought we could get the ingredients state side.  (I hope you are ready to eat a lot of plantains in the coming months)

Diego's Family.  We were surprised to see his inactive
father and mother, Angelica, at the baptism.

Here is a picture of Diego’s baptism.  He has been ready for a while, but we have waited because the zone leaders were worried about people supporting him because his entire family is inactive.  Here in the photo, they all came to support him at his baptism.  He has been going to seminary all by himself for almost two months now.

Diego was baptized by his cousin, Stalin Velastegui

We did pretty well this last week.  We got the family with the inactive dad to church and I think it was a really good experience.  His wife didn’t make it, but he brought one of his kids.  Gary and his son also made it (by himself) to church.  He is a cousin of some members and recently had an industrial accident.  Some ward members knew him from an out-of-church setting and were really happy to see him attending.  It was just proof that all the members are just loaded with references that they don’t want to give us.  Just kidding.  The missionaries need to find better ways of asking.

Love, Elder Ludlam

Divine Help

Happy Moving Day!

I hope these moving people don’t try and back the moving truck into the front of the house.  Or roll it into a ditch.  I hope you get some good sleep after all your journeys.

I like having p-day at four-day intervals.  I think I’ll have to write and tell the president we should change.  The other day he was asking if we’d like working a whole transfer without p days and then having a week of p days.  We used to have lunch every Monday, but it took up too much time, so we canceled and just ate in the house.  We weren’t sure how to make rice, so we asked a neighbor for help.  She got a kick out of it.

This past week we found an inactive guy.  He’s been a member most of his life until he started living with a nonmember.  She got him going to her church, so he hasn’t come for a while.  He was pretty happy to see us.  We taught her the restoration and it went pretty well.  Hopefully, our lesson today goes well.  We are still trying to find some good people.  We’ve been trying to improve the quality of our contacts by talking to the people awhile first before starting to teach doctrine because then we can know them better and say stuff that will be more meaningful for them.  So far it has felt like it has been working.  We had a couple good conversations at least. 

President has talked a lot recently about just enjoying yourself.  It is a privilege to be able to go out everyday and just look for good persons.  I have been trying to do that.  There have been times in the mission when I just enjoyed contacting and then other times it just feels like a chore.  I like listening to people.  It is true that really everyone has problems that they don’t know how to deal with and they need the perspective and hope that only the eternal gospel can give.  If I’ve learned anything on the mission, it is how to be a little more spiritually self-sufficient.  I hardly have all the answers, but at least I know where to look for them.

I have been trying to figure out why Elder Velasquez and I were able to have so much success together.  I have realized that there is no way I could ever have converted any of these people if I didn’t have divine help.  I guess this is really His Work and His Glory.  Sometimes we need to just take ourselves out of the picture.  So I guess now if I want to finish having helped some more people, the only way to do it is doing it His way.

Well, I was hoping to get some good pictures of the reunion and the move, but I can wait until next week.  Does this mean you’re not going to send any more DearElders?  I’d be careful sending any more letters because I’m not sure how long it’ll take to get here.  I don’t think the mission will forward mail.  Do we have a new phone number?  I need to tell Elder Johnson about my new address.

Love, the boy with lots of boxes of junk you just shipped across the continental U.S.

President gave us a new rule we can't post any pictures without permission on a blog.

Temple Trip!

Dear Family,

At the temple with Elder Brooks

When you’re on the road, will you get to check your mail?  How are all them Burnetts?  I am writing Thursday because we just had a special session in the temple today-- they changed preparation day.  It’s been since October or November since I last went.  We had a capacitacion with Presidente (training with the President) and we talked about teaching people, not lessons.  We practiced asking inspired questions to find people’s problems and then tailoring the lessons to fit their needs.

How is everybody all feeling?  I am guessing you are all pretty tired out.  I suppose you’ll get this when you get to NJ.  It will be two p days stacked up.

Disappearing Ink

Well, this past week, the Zone Leaders came and did a special study session with us about asking good questions and finding desafios (challenges) and not just jumping into a lesson, being more patient and relying more on the spirit to tell you what to do.  It got me really excited.  I guess that has just always been something I’ve wanted to learn to do real well so I want to make these last few weeks really count.  I feel like there is so much I want to learn.  It is 100% true what they say about the last part of your mission going by at light speed.  I remember going to bed one night thinking I had a little over a year and the waking up to find I only had six months left.  If you asked me, I couldn’t even tell you what I did in June.

I have been practicing being more assertive with my companion.  The only problem is that our entire program has tanked.  I don’t want to fizzle out at the end.  If I am going to end with any last baptisms, we need to find someone this week.  We have been trying hard to find someone.  Sometimes I feel like I’m that person who doesn’t know how to swim so when they fall in the water they start kicking and flailing and waste all their energy and then start thinking, "swimming is really hard."  Then they get a cramp. 

Hidden Message

I think another Elder may be sending you some photos.  I gave him Mom's email.  I´m not sure what he's going to send.  If you could forward them when you get them.

Now to answer my fan mail:

Hope you like these pictures of Fletcher's secret message.  I mailed him a letter once with "I heart Ecuador" written in invisible yogurt ink.  This is his response.

Love, Elder Grant

Seven weeks to goal

Elder Ludlam and Elder Brooks

Dear Family,

Way to go Lia.  You got the speech.

Well, I guess this is the last Bellevue letter.  I am still waiting for my dear elders to come in so I don’t know anything about your exodus preparations.  How are you going to write during the reunion?  Is Dad going to be able to go?

Well, Elder Brooks and I are still fighting to put a program together, but we haven’t gotten anything yet.  We’ve got a bunch of references, so hopefully there will be somebody good in there. 

I have 7 weeks left.  I gave myself the goal of ending with 40 baptisms but I still have 8 to go.  I think I’m going to have to pick things up.  Did they talk to you on your mission a lot about ending with no regrets?  That is what I am thinking about, a lot.  For my birthday, I found a book of piano sheet music so we went to the chapel on p-day and played for a while.  I am not sure it was such a good idea because I kept thinking about all the songs afterwards.  I had to go through piano withdrawals.

Well, I hope everything goes well with the move.  I imagine you're all going through a lot.  Hope to hear from you all soon.

 

Love,
Nanly

Maybe it's about time...

Legal Drinking Age: An important moment in every young man´s life (Grant's wrote this as his title for the week)

Dear Family,

How are you all doing?  When is your talk, Mom?  I’m sorry I haven’t sent anything.  My favorite obedience line is from la manual misional (the Missionary Manual) p. 4. “Si hace esto, el Señor le bendecirá y usted se convertirá en un mensajero de la verdad...Al obedecer con un corazón bien dispuesto, le demostrará al Señor su amor por Él, se ganará la confianza de los que son miembros y los que no lo son y tendrá derecho a la compañía del Espíritu Santo.”  (If you do this, the Lord will bless you and you will become a messenger of truth.  Obeying with a willing heart, you will demonstrate your love for the Lord, you will gain the confidence of those who are members and those who aren’t, and you will have a right to the companionship of the Holy Ghost). The last one is my favorite.  I hope you like it.  It’s pretty missionary oriented, but it’s still good anyway.

View from our apartment

Things have been going well with Elder Brooks. We had a first good week.  Our ateo (atheist) came to church again and had another really good experience. After church was over, the whole Elder’s Quorum stayed behind for like 45 minutes to keep answering his questions about doctrine, how they gained a testimony, and how the gospel has changed their lives.  It was a good experience for him.  His mom said that he was really impressed the first time, too, even if he didn’t want to let it on.  A pesar de todo ésto, he still has his doubts.  The other day he said, "Me cuesta creer en un zombi-judío con quien puedo comunicarme telepaticamente para expiar los pecados de una mujer-costilla que comió de un árbol mágico.  (It’s a little hard for me to believe in a zombie-Jew with whom I can communicate telepathically who can atone for the sins of a woman-rib? that ate from a magic tree).  I thought it was cute-- in a sacrilegious kind of way.

We’ve been working hard on practicing Spanish with Elder Brooks.  I think Elder Velasquez and I have been talking too much in English.  Hopefully things will get back under control.

My favorite bread store on the corner

We found a good family the other day contacting. When we knocked on the door, we talked with the guy for a few minutes through the window. After, he decided to let us in, we invited them to church.  He looked at his wife and said, "Maybe it’s about time."  (I choose to translate that like all those Mormon ads)  Anyways, after finishing lesson one, his wife went to get us some drinks and he leaned closer to us and said, "Look, hermanos, I don’t know why you’re in my house. I am the kind of guy to just tell you to go away because I’m busy.  For some reason, when you asked to come in, I just decided to let you in."  His wife already has a testimony of the Book of Mormon.  She had listened to the missionaries a while ago, but never had really read the Book of Mormon, but knows she is interested and wants to keep listening.  They both want to turn their lives around, but they’ve got a couple desafíos (challenges).  We’ll keep working with them.

We are hoping to go to the Malecón next to our house to take some pictures.  Maybe I can send some later.

Love, Mr. Bubbly

Happy Birthday...a week early!

Grant got his birthday package!  This means he got his new camera! The shades didn't break!

Elder Ludlam's district in Solana, Guayaquil

Grant and Elder Silva (on his way to Chile)

Elder Ludlam, Elder Garcia, Elder Velasquez (Grant's last companion), Elder Silva

 Grant's new companion, Elder Brooks, Mesa AZ

Dear Family,

Well, it looks like I may be ending my days here in Solana.  Maybe they’ll transfer me for my last three weeks.  Elder Velasquez got moved to the ward right next to Solana with an Argentine companion.  He’s been wanting a Latino companion badly.  Elder Silva left for Chile.  My new companion’s name is Elder Brooks from Mesa,  AZ.  He has about 7 months in the mission.  He has a brother that just got back from his mission in Rascaguas, Chile, también.  I got the birthday stuff and have tried to take as many pictures as possible.  I hope you’re impressed.

I talked with Elder Johnson and he confirmed that my homecoming date is Aug 7.  I think almost everyone from my group is going home early to study so they just sent me home with them.  So much for trying to extend.  I guess I am coming home early anyway.

I am going to miss Elder Velasquez.  I think he was losing patience with me, but it was nice to have someone who was always willing to work.  We found a young man named Miguel Angel.  He is really interested in the church, but has read some a lot of atheist stuff, so he’s all confused.  He has been researching a lot of different religions and beliefs to try and find answers.  He had already started reading the beginning of the Book of Mormon online before we found him.  We gave him a real copy and he’s already in 2 Nephi 2.  He’s been having doubts with Adam and Eve.  He had a great time at church.  He seemed affected by the brotherhood exhibited by the young men.  Hopefully he will keep coming. 

The problem is that he has wanted to come closer to Christ for a few months now, and has many positive spiritual experiences.  He has told us he continues to feel these things when he reads the Book of Mormon, but has convinced himself these feelings are psychologically induced and does not want to accept them.  We have been stressing the fact that if we know the Book of Mormon is true, then we can know that Christ really was the Son of God and that he was able to complete a perfect atonement for all mankind.  He has lots of questions, but we’ve told him that we can continue answering his questions and concerns, but without a growing testimony of the Book of Mormon, we will never get anywhere because we have nothing to build on.  There will always be doubt.  We’ll see if he can pick it up this week.

Wilson story (for a gift our family was making at home):  One time in one of my lessons with Anna, I could not keep a steady rhythm so she took out the metronome, but it did not make any difference in my playing . She then took out two drum sticks and began cracking them together a few inches from my ear to help me keep the beat.  When this did not result in any change in my performance, she began hitting them together harder and harder.  I opined that if she kept doing so, something was going to get broken.  She said that we were going to continue doing this until I could stay on beat.  A few moments later, one of the sticks snapped clean in half.  It was one of the greatest "I told you so" moments of my life.

Hope you like it.  There was another time when my brakes stopped working on my bike on a scout trip and I crashed into Isaac.

Well, much love,
Sha-Nanner-gins

Deep Toy Story Wisdom ☺

Dear Family,

No one has said anything about changing my homecoming date to me.  What did the email say?  Thanks for all the parts of talks that you sent me.  They helped.

This past week we’ve been using a list of inactive members that our bishop gave us to find part member families to teach.  So far it has been working pretty well.  Hopefully we can get some of them to church in the next few weeks.   

I’ve been thinking about Toy Story recently.  I guess if the scriptures ever stop being a source of revelation, I still have Pixar.  Buzz and Woody both have problems with pride and self worth.  Woody has small person pride because he wants to tear Buzz down.  He had everything how he wanted it as the ruler of his own little world until Buzz comes along.  Buzz has big person pride.  His self worth is connected to his ability to do impossibly difficult things.  As they both come to the realization they are actually inconsequential in the world, it literally puts Woody in a cage and it straps Buzz to a bomb (which I guess both could hold symbolic meaning).  The only way they can find a way out is when they actually start communicating and they help to free each other.  

What would you give me on the AP Lit exam for that, Lia?  That’s my little analysis.  Every once in a while I think to myself, "You are a toy.  You are a child’s plaything."

Well, we have changes this next week.  I think I will miss Elder Velasquez.  I won’t say I’m not really tired of the ward, but at least I had a good companion. 

I love you all.  I am excited that I will be able to see Lia.  I was looking at all the sister pictures you sent me for Christmas and thought to myself, "Skype is just not going to cut it."  What day do you head off to school, Lia? When did you say the moving date is?  It’s coming up isn’t it?

Love Nanners

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.

A Book Saturated in the Spirit

Hello Family,

How are you all? Things are going well here. Everything went well with José (he was baptized on Sunday). He is very happy. We got to ride a big school bus home from the service.

The magic school bus

Everyone is excited for the baptism!

Jean Carlos, Jose, Jose Jose, Glenda

We found some new people this week. There is one named Karen. She is a friend of another friend we are teaching. When we first started talking with her, she told us not even to bring up baptism because she has been asked "a hundred times" by different churches to get baptized and that the decision to get baptized takes lots of time. So, we just gave her a Book of Mormon and focused in on the other investigadora for the rest of the lesson. The next time we passed by the first thing she said was, "Hey, guess what! I read the book and now I want to get baptized." It was rather surprising. I love it when they read the Book of Mormon.

I think it was Elder Gonzalez that said it is a book saturated in the spirit of the Lord. I’ve been thinking about that phrase a lot, recently. Combined with the spirit, it really is a missionary’s greatest tool. We invited her to see another baptism and she said, "What? Why do they get to get baptized this Saturday and I have to wait a couple of weeks." That is not a usual response.

Jose with his brother, Dario, sister,
Maria, and mother

Ward after the baptism

Things are going really well with Elder Velasquez. He’s a great guy. He’s easy to talk to. I don’t like feeling old. It seems so short till its all over. I am not really sure how I feel about it. Sometimes when I’m trying to get someone excited about coming to church or to keep one of their commitments after they change their mind for the fourth time, I think to myself, "I’m getting too old for this." But then later I think I don’t ever want this to stop.

Mom, how was trying to be obedient on your mission? One of the things I’ve been working on is understanding that I don’t have to do everything perfectly. I can take time to learn to do things right and with prayer and planning I can decide how to use my time best.. Every once I a while I’ve been feeling frustrated in the mornings when I haven’t gotten everything ready for the day and then I feel like things won’t go right or that I won’t have the spirit or something. How did you learn to follow the rules without going rule crazy?

Brian and Patricio with Alain and his mother

Feel-y  I don't like feeling old.  It seems so short till it's all over.  I am not really sure how I feel about it.  Sometimes when I'm trying to get someone excited about coming to church or to keep one of their commitments after they change their mind for the fourth time, I think to my self, "I´m getting too old for this." but then later I think I don't ever want this to stop.  That's how Elder Castro Colombiano was.  He'd wake up one morning and want to extend his mission and then the next day he would say he just wanted to go home.

Well, that’s what has been going on in Solana. I am looking forward to talking to you soon. I got the Easter and Saint Valentine's packages this week. The chocolate pretzels were a hit.

Mucho amor,
Mr. V

Todo Tranquilo

Dear Fambly,

How are you all?  I hope you all enjoyed the conference.  I’m downloading the talks right now.

I would like another camera.  I am guessing mailing one would be the best option.  I just don’t know when it will get here.  I read something that worried me in one of your letters.  You said that you had to give back Bup’s laptop.  Were you able to save my music on there?  It is a personal treasure.  I am worried since we will no longer be in the King County Library System some of the songs may be nearly irreplaceable.  That’s a Spanish-looking English word. 

I am not sure about going home in October.  My trunky papers came in blank.  I did talk to an assistant about extending, though.

We had a pretty good week.  Todo tranquilo con Élder Velasquez. (all is well with Elder Velasquez)

Feely
In my talks with Elder Packard, we have talked about how the real path to being happy is by receiving and following promptings from the Holy Ghost.  Revelation really does make us happy.  I'm thinking back over past companionship problems and dealing with difficult people, even when everything seemed to be stretched to the limit, I found (looking back) that when I was really in contact with Heavenly Father and trying to find and do His will, everything seemed to be under control and I was able to find great peace. 

Recently, I have been trying to record little impressions to do something nice, or how to do something right, or a prompting to be more obediente.  I've been writing them on these little pink post-its that stick out of the bottom of my agenda.  It makes it easier to see how I am doing with my communication with heaven.  The little revelation dead-spots, where I've gone a few days without anything to write, have been the times where I later on have felt lonely or sad.  They have been the times when, even if I was trying to work hard, things just didn't seem to work out or I would just get tired and slow down.  The spots with lots of little pink notes have been when I have been able to have success even in difficult circumstances. 

I liked Élder Scott's talk about revelation.  I liked how he talked about having our bodies, minds, and spirits ready and in tune to receive revelation.  It gave me a desire to be obedient with more exactness.    Not that I am breaking any big rules, but sometimes when I'm not careful, it is easy to slip up on something like the missionary schedule a little bit.  I want to do better. I think when it all comes down to it, that is really the reason we have a strict schedule and diet, because that way we can give our whole body and mind to the work.  Anyways, that's Nan's little pensamiento espiritual.  Sed, pues, obediente.  What talks did you all like?

BTW, I did the beard by sticking my hair onto my face with a glue stick.  It was a plan Élder Castro and I had had for a while.

Oh yeah, José was able to come to the Priesthood session.  I think the talks were really good for him.  His wife has been wanting him to take more responsibility in disciplining his children in both the religious and non-religious aspects.  They gave a lot of talks about men being leaders in their homes.  I think he liked them a lot.  His wife commented afterward that he came home really content.  It is pretty amazing what hearing the words of a prophet can do.  He is very excited about his baptism this week.

Well, love you a ton.  Take care. 

 Love, Elder Ludlam

Filling Eyes with Hope and Joy

Dear Family,

How are all my beloved ones?  Things are great here with Elder Velasquez.  We are looking forward to another great week.

These past few days I’ve really been able to see how the Restored Gospel really fills people’s eyes with hope and joy.  This week we’ve been able to talk with a lot of people about the blessings of eternal families.  I thought it was pretty cool.  (On the Way Home helps a lot)  Jeje. 

Our investigators are all doing great.  José, the husband of our mamita, is eating up the Book of Mormon.  He wants to read it all before he gets baptized in April.  He’s already in Alma.  He said he’s hooked and can’t stop anymore.  His favorite part has been when Alma and Amulek call the "unbelievers" to repentance.  I love it when they love the Book of Mormon.  The other day he went over to his inactive brother’s house to try and get him to come to church.

Joselyn and Marcelo have been reading and praying together every night the past few weeks.  We brought a member, Alain, over to visit with them.  When he heard they were praying and reading together he admitted that he and his wife had not been doing so well with that and was inspired by them to start doing better. 

President Montalti’s last few conferences have been based on the First Presidency’s message at the beginning of PMG where they say that missionary work is the most important and most satisfying work.  I guess I got to see this in the brother we took to visit with us.  Because he was willing to give his time to visit our investigators, he caught a little of their enthusiasm and now has a greater determination to keep the commandments.  Like you said in one of your earlier letters, converts are the life blood of the church.  Alain is actually on fire.  He reactivated a few months ago and is helping us teach all of his family.  He brought all of his cousins and nephews to church yesterday in white shirts and ties.  Pretty Cool.

Elder Velasquez and I have a goal to bring 25 people to general conference.  We cooked up this scheme to try and get a minimum of three members to visit and comprometer (commit) the investigators to come Saturday and Sunday.  We made little lists of the people we wanted each member to visit and handed them out after church and scheduled when we could pass by together to visit the investigators.  We’ll have to see how it turns out.  I think it will work a little better than just running through our phone list of Varones que son Eternamente Desocupados (unemployed males) everyday until we find someone who is willing so spend the day with us like we’ve been doing.  That gets you labeled as an elder fastidioso (annoying).

Anyway, I’m so glad to hear that you are enjoying the freedom of having sold the house.  Now I don’t have to feel so bad about you having to move.  That’s good that you’ll get to go to the reunion.  Is this the first one I’ve ever missed?

Well, take care, Bambino-Dinkers.
Love,

Il Duce

Elder Carnese se fue.  Está en la oficina otra vez.  El nuevo es un italiano-guatemalteco-gringo.  Se llama Élder Sparacino. (Elder Carnese left.  He is in the office again.  The new elder is part Italian/Guatemalan/American.  His name is Elder Sparacino.)

Welcome Elder Velasquez!

Dear Fam Fam,

Elder Velasquez

How are you all?  I am doing great.  We had cambios (transfers).  I am still here in Solana.  Elder Coy got sent back to Loja.  He was quite upset about that.  My new companion’s name is Elder Velasquez.  He is a gringo-latino from Cincinatti, OH.  His dad is from Guatemala.  We just met a few hours ago.  Me parece un tipo bastante bueno. (He seems like a really good guy)

We had a really good week this past week.  We got a lady named Jocelyn to come to church.  She is the partner of a less-active member, Marcelo, we found contacting.  When we first talked with her, she said that she was Catholic and could never change because of her mom, but then we shared the message of the Restoration and she really caught on and wants to be baptized. 

The only problem is that the less-active partner is not all that excited about coming back to church.  He actually got baptized and was really active in another ward called Los Esteros (one of my earlier wards), but something happened so he changed job locations to change wards.  We were able to visit with the sister yesterday with the bishop.  The bishop lived before in Los Esteros and was there when Marcelo got baptized.  He had heard that Marcelo had moved to this ward but had never been able to find him.  He talked with Jocelyn about setting an example for her husband so that he could decide to come back to church and marry Jocelyn.  I thought it was pretty cool.  It has been hard to visit our investigators with the bishop.

Elder Carnese is still here but Elder Johnson left.  He was only here for two weeks.  The new elder’s name is Elder Silva from Chile.  I just wanted to ask you for our new address, phone numbers, and the names, the unit numbers of our new ward and stake, and the name of the airport in NJ.  I got my trunky papers (flight itinerary) the other week, but it came in blank because they are missing information.  I need to send them los datos nuevos (new information).  I was also wondering if you could send my mission call in the next package.  President said that we should read over it frequently.  I would like another camera, but I don’t know how much time I would have to use it.  I am old.

Well, here's my promised pysch-feely:
These last few weeks I've been working with a senior missionary named Elder Packard due to some of my companionship issues.  I think he works with the whole area because he's based in Lima.  So far we've only been able to have to or three full conversations due to phone problems and a trip to Bolivia that he had to take.  Mostly we've talked about not being passive and learning to talk to people to get both our needs met so I don't get frustrated and then explode.  We've also been working on replacing bad thoughts of ineptitude (which lead me to try to blame or tear down my companion) with edifying, uplifting thoughts from Christ.  So far I've really enjoyed our sessions together even though I haven't been able to talk to him for a week or two.  I just decided last week that I wanted to share with you some of what´s been going on.

Does this mean I can’t open your emails since you’ve been hacked?

Well, I look forward to writing to you all next week and as always I will be in District Meeting waiting for a mountain of DearElders.

Love, Nannie-Pooh

Dear Grandma Natalie,

How are you?  I am sorry we have not been able to talk in so long.  As you know, I've been in Ecuador these past 18 months as a missionary.  Even though I have had to put my studies on hold for a while, I know this is the best decision I have ever made.  It is hard, but the gospel I share is able to bring such hope and solace to the humble people of Ecuador.  The message I share gives them a new foundation for faith in Jesus Christ.  The reason for this new hope comes from our belief that God still talks with man on earth like we read about in the Bible.

Even though many people believe that now miracles don't exist anymore and that God is far away in Heaven and does not take much concern in our daily lives, the people I teach can find hope and new confidence in God by believing that he called the boy Joseph Smith to be a prophet in the spring of 1820.  The convincing evidence of this is the Book of Mormon.  I am not sure how much Dad has been able to talk to you about all this.  Have you ever been able to read the Book of Mormon?  I know that anyone who with sincerity will read the Book of Mormon and pray to God with faith to ask if it is true will come to know of its divinity by the power of the Holy Ghost.
 
I am sorry if I am getting a little preachy, but this is what I have been talking about every day with everyone for the past year and a half.  I am so glad that we will be moving so much closer to you when we come to New Jersey.  Mom tells me we will just be a few hours from New York City.  I am not sure how much time it takes to travel to Maryland.  It will be so much easier to visit when I get back in October.  Well, I just wanted to send you a little note.  We only write to our families by email every Monday.  I would love to hear back from you someday.  Talk to you soon.

Love, your grandson, Grant

Photos at Last!

Dear Family,

I'm a Man Now: Elder Ludlam forgets to shave
OR Elder Ludlam gets a messy haircut!

Sounds like an exciting week for you all!  That is so wonderful about selling the house in one day.  Have you ever thought about going into Real Estate, Mom?  You’re building a pretty good track record.  2/2

Well, things have been going well in Solana.  We’ve been working hard to find new people.  Yesterday, we had a great lesson.  Elder Coy’s favorite mamita here (featured in the FHE picture in the purple shirt) finally got her husband to listen to the missionaries.  All her kids are members, and now they are just waiting for the dad.  Anyway, she’s been praying for years that her husband would start investigating the church so they could get sealed in the temple.  Slowly but surely she has been making progress, from playing the hymns in their house, to having him in the room during family prayer, to reading out loud to him from the Book of Mormon before they go to bed; she’s been melting down his corazón endurecido (hard heart).  Last night we got him to accept a baptism date for the week after General Conference.  We are all pretty excited.

Family Home Evening

Elder Ludlam's Hungry Hippo Shoes

Well, we have transfers coming up next week.  We decided to use our possibly last p-day together to make some homemade cerveza de raíz (root beer) with Elder Carnese and Elder Johnson.  It’s almost been 18 months since I drank root beer.  My last night in the Provo MTC, I think I drank about 5 glasses of root beer to make it count.  

Well, I am sorry.  Elder Coy wants to stick to the 45 minute letter rule and this is straining my 45 wpm typing skills to the maximum.  Sometimes I burn out and have to stare blankly out into space to cool down before I can start typing again. 

Love,

Sir Squilliam Sledgeham, esq.