A Very Happy District Meeting

Dear family,

Great News!  This week I received a whopping .9 cm stack of letters más 2 paquetes (plus 2 packages)!  It was a very happy district meeting.  I’ve taken to singing the Mail Song from Blue’s Clues as the Zone Leaders arrive with the mail.  ♫ Here’s the mail, it never fails...

Well, this week we found a new investigator named Allison.  She is a friend of Génesis. She was studying medicine until she suffered from kidney failure.  She has quite a few medical problems, but has been very easy to teach.  She is really intelligent.  It is nice not to see that glazed-over look in an investigators eyes as you try to explain the Book of Mormon.  "So what you’re saying is the Book of Mormon is a summary of the Bible?" That’s what most people think after we explain where the Book of Mormon comes from.

Junior Apolinario, left

We had an unfortunate gossip incident this week with our little member friend named Junior.  He has a lot of free time on his hands, so he always accompanies us so we can go visit homes with only sisters.  One of the down sides of teaching so many lady investigators, we learned this week, is that Junior falls in love with all of them. Whenever we need to find him, we just go looking in all the homes of our investigators and he always turns up.  

Anyway, he is not all there, so when the ladies did not find him all that interesting, he started spreading stories about how Elder Castro was in love with them and was plotting with some of the members of the ward to come back and marry our investigators. He started sharing his little stories and things kind of got ugly between several of the ward members.  We had to get the stake counselor involved and things are all settled now, but I am afraid we will not be doing anymore visits with Junior.  The ironic part, though, is before any of this had happened I was assigned to give a message on chismes (gossip) for the spiritual part of Faro this week.  Elder Castro definitely made good use of that opportunity.  I found a pretty good scripture in 1 Tim 5:11-15 that suited our situation well.

We went to the Mall del Sur today and talked with some of my old missionary buddies, so hopefully next week I’ll be able to get some pictures of the first weeks on my mission to you guys.  Today was Elder Castro’s penúltimo (2^nd to last) P-day.  Just 12 days left before he flies back to Bógota.  

I was very glad to get updated on all of your adventures since Mother’s Day.  I really like the book you sent, Mom.  A lot of cool dudes talking about prayer.  I have been able to get some good material from it.

Well, I’ll talk to you next week.

Love, Grant

A rather memorable night

Dear family,

I guess I had better send you a long one.

Well, this Sunday we had a rather interesting fellowshipping activity.  Every Sunday here, Amazonas 1st Ward puts on a ward activity called Faro.  Someone gives a little spiritual message and then everyone plays games designed to develop ward unity.  The spiritual part last week was rather genius, in my opinion.  The hermano who is in charge of putting on Faro started the night by telling everyone that this was a night that would change the nature of the ward forever.  The plan was to make everyone start bawling like a baby, thus forging long lasting bonds of friendship by sharing such an emotional, potent mutual experience.  To achieve such an exquisitely emotional atmosphere, we watched a movie called Las Familias Son Eternas (Families are Forever).  It dates back to when all the church media was on little slides and you played a sound track that made beeps so you know when to move the filmstrip. 

The first time I saw this movie I was on an exchange with Elder Ruiz.  During lunch he put this movie on for the family to watch.  As the mamita served us the food, I had to wipe away the tears, while mumbling, "Gracias por la sopita, hermana, fue muy rico" (Thank you for the soup, Mamita.  It was delicious).  It gets to me every time, so when I saw they were starting it at the ward activitiy, Elder Castro and I ran to the back to take cover because we knew an emotional bombshell was coming.  It got to everyone.   Afterwards, Elder Castro and I had to search around the church and round up everybody who had left during the movie.  We would tell them, "It’s alright.  You can go back in.  Everybody is crying." 

After that, to lighten up the mood, we played a game called “Lamanitas,” where if you don’t say a certain phrase right, word for word, people get to draw Lamanite marks on your head with lipstick.  All in all, a rather memorable night. 

Noemi, Joao, Meylin, Dioselina

Do you remember how I told you about Joao last week?  (we don’t remember)  He is the son of our favorite mamita, Hermana Dioselina.  This hermana has always been super active since she was baptized, but she has never really been able to enjoy being a member of the church with her family.  Recently, Joao told us he was interested in taking the discussions.  We are trying to finish up all the lessons quickly because Joao is leaving in a week and a half for a karate tournament in Paraguay.  He spends most of the day practicing, so many of our appointments are in the morning.  The only problem is Joao likes to wake up a wee bit later than the missionaries do.  It takes a family effort to raise him from the dead to come listen to us.  We were very pleased to find out on Sunday morning that Joao had woken up by himself and was already to go to church!  Hermana Dioselina thanked us afterward and told us that being able to chat together with her son on the short walk to church had made her whole week.  It was nice to hear this from her since she does so much for us.

Obispo Rafael Tigre and Carlos Valdez

Well, thank you for the birthday picture.  One of our investigators learned it was my birthday and decided to give me some boxers with a dragon on them.  She told me she got them because she knew I didn’t have any like that.  It was a little difficult to explain why I couldn’t accept her gift.

We’ve just kept busy here in Amazonas.  Elder Castro has taken on the determination to finish his mission running faster than ever.  I hope to hear from you soon.  You are all probably out of school by now, aren’t you?

Love, Brother Birthday Boy

Just pictures...

Hello Family,

Sorry, but I don’t have much time to write.  I figured you would at least like some pictures.  I will try and cook up a nice, long letter for next week.  Je Je

Love Nan

From the top of Nan's house in Las Amazonas, Guayaquil

Grant's new companion, Elder Castro from Columbia



Happy P-day / D-Day

Hello Family,

How are you all?  I guess school is just about over.  When is everyone’s last day?  Are you excited for the break?

We had another good week.  We just had transfers, so it looks like I will be with Elder Castro here until he finishes in five weeks.  Every time we see a plane fly overhead he sighs and says, "Hey, llave (that’s Colombian speak, I think) look, there I go."  It looks like we already have a few people to work with in his last few weeks.  Last night, two of our favorite mamita’s grown children, Vaneza and Joao, decided to start accepting visits from us.  We also started teaching Kiara, Génesis´ cousin.  She is really shy, so we have been trying to find ways to get her to participate more in the lessons.

Thanks for the BYU lacrosse update.  I am glad they did so well.  They have a lot of really good club teams.  I think their rugby team is pretty good, too.

Sorry, but I don’t have much time to talk.  We just got back from a mission-wide leadership training for Elder Castro and we still need to do all of our other P-day duties.

Please send Holty a happy P-day D-Day!

Well, I hope to hear from you all. 

Just a quick one!

Hello Family,

How are you?  I was glad to see you had such a good time in Disneyland, especially Luci.  I look forward to getting your letter to hear about all the details.

Genesis was baptized by her cousin, Javier

We had a good week.  We finally got one young lady, Génesis Salazar, to accept a baptismal date. For the past week, Elder Castro and I have passed by the store where she works every night to ask her, "Se bautizará el 4 de Junio?" (Will you be baptized on June 4^th?)  We got her neighbors to start asking her the same thing to tease her.  She had accepted to be baptized a few weeks ago, but one day decided she no longer wanted to.  We have been trying to figure out why she started having doubts.  She told us she wanted to be baptized but did not want us to set a date.  

On Friday, we had a really good lesson with her. She told us that her family is opposed to her listening to us.  We told her that she will always have problems in this life and that the only way to have the strength to pass through our trials is by exercising faith in Jesus Christ.  At the end, we asked her to pray.  In her prayer she said that she always knew the church was true and that now she wanted to stop denying what God has been trying to tell her.  She told us afterwards that she had never prayed like that before.

Anyways, Elder Walter F. Gonzalez came to our mission.  All of Misión Guayaquil Norte and Guayaquil Sur came to listen.  There were 400 missionaries in attendance.  It was great to see everybody, especially my trainer, Papá Gonzalez Che.

Well, my companion wants to go.

Talk to you later!

Transfer to Las Amazonas!

Hello Family,

I spent many exchanges with my district leader Elder Hicks
while I was in Los Almendros

Well, guess what.  I am in yet another area!  In my 5 transfers in the field I have had 6 areas and 5 companions.  My new companion's name is Elder Castro from Bogota, Colombia.  He is awesome.  He was a sergeant in the Colombian Army with 300 men under his command.  This next transfer he ends his mission, so I guess I will be the one to see him off.  Our area is called Las Amazonas.

Wednesday I got to have my first trip to the Guayaquil temple.  I wish we had permission to go more often.  It is so peaceful there.

Odalis, Maria Jose, Ana

Anyway, in my first half week in my new area, I've come to know all the dollies (?) of Elder Torrealva, Elder Castro's previous companion.  Elder Castro told me that in this mission, missionaries like to use two main stratagies to try and get a few quick baptisms.  1. Plan Titanic: Go for the women and children, 2. Plan James Bond: Baptize all your dollies.  Right now we are in Plan James Bond.  There are about 6 chicas we are working the most with.  Three of them, Ana Cortez, Odalis Cortez, and Maria José Borja are progressing the very rapidly.  They already have a testimony of the Book of Mormon and have said that it has already helped them find solutions to some of their family problems.  They are very excited for their upcoming baptism. 

Familia Jalka Banguera

The other three, Yanina, Liset, and Carla Jalka Bangera, are still pretty unsure about accepting the gospel.  They like our visits but we learned yesterday that their extended family is opposed to the church.  They have all agreed that they have felt the Holy Ghost testifying to them in a few of our visits, but do not want to accept everything we have taught them, particularly the Book of Mormon.  They have been praying for an answer.  We are praying we will be able to help them accept their answer.  Unfortunately, they are expecting God to answer them in the manner they want.  We explained when the Holy Ghost speaks to us it is more felt than heard.

Our District

Well, I am sorry, but I could not find my adapter cord to send you pictures.  I'll try to get them to you next week.  We had a district activity today on top of our house.  We had a barbeque.  This area is a lot more like an average Guayaquil sector.  It is a lot like my first sector with Elder Gonzalez.  I don't know why, but all my previous sectors have been the most affluent parts of the mission.

Parrillada on top of our six-story house

I guess this means I have run even farther ahead of my mail.  I hope I´ll at least get your latest letter this week.  I am now about a month and a half behind in letters.  Well, I'll talk to you next week.

Love, Elder Ludlam

Hooray, Pablo!

Hello Family,

Well, stake conference went really great.  We managed to move Pablo Elisalde and his wheelchair down to his car so he could go with us to church.  His daughter sang "A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief" as a special musical number.  He really was glad he got to go.  He did not think he would be able to go with his physical limitations but said he decided to just trust in the Lord and in us as missionaries that we would be able to "get him to church on time."  He told us every day he grows more and more sure that he is in the right path and feels he is reconciling himself with God.  Hopefully, he will be able to use these feelings in his moments of difficulty to keep optimistic and at peace.

We also had two really cool Book of Mormon experiences.  The first was a lesson we taught to a young atheist.  He decided to listen to us but did not respond to anything we said.  We left him the Book of Mormon and told him about the specific promise that it was written to convince the Jew and the gentile that Jesus is the Christ, the Eternal God.  He said he likes to read a lot, but only material that really captures his attention.  We decided to pass by his house a few days later.  His grandpa answered the door and asked us if we were the people who left the Book of Mormon behind.  He told us that his grandson, Carlos, was reading it a lot, which really surprised him because he has never believed in God.  The grandpa had also started to read and is excited for us to come back and teach again. 

We also had another talk with William Brown.  He had told us that he really appreciated our visits, but that we were unable to convince him that Jesus was Jehovah and preferred now to just receive visits from his Testigo (Jehovah’s Witnesses) friends.  Last night, however, he stopped us in his car and said he had started to read the Book of Mormon and now wants us to come back.  We’ll have to see what he is interested in.  

Well, hopefully I’ll hear from you tomorrow in district meeting. 

Love you so much,

Grant