Conferencia!

Funny pictures this week--David still enjoys playing with his camera.

David and Elder Sanchez have had a great time working together.

He is from California and played football (defensive end).

Hey Mom and Dad!

Wow, that's crazy Hunter gave his farewell talk. That´s awesome he´s entering the MTC so soon. I know he´ll be a great missionary. Now I bet Wylie is looking forward to the day he´ll enter now that he´s the last one home in the ward. Well that´s awesome to know we´re all out serving the Lord. I don´t think I´ll ever forget the years we all had together as young men going through high school together. I always remember Priest quorum class was always my favorite hour of church because we´d all just be in there as a close group of friends. I think we´ve all helped each other in a lot of ways throughout the years. It´s good to know we´re on the right path.

And wow-- Seville is getting married next month?! That´s crazy but awesome. I suppose it´s not too big of a surprise-- she´d been dating Sebastian for a while it seemed. And that´s awesome Elizabeth is getting married too! You´ll have to congratulate them for me. That´s great Robbie, Kristen and Luke are home for a few weeks. That´ll be a great time to relax and enjoy the summer weather as a family. It´s always fun here--I carry that picture of all of us that we took in front of the Provo temple, so I can show our investigators. I always enjoy telling them about everyone and bragging how awesome my family is :) It´s a great lead into several principles like how the Gospel blesses families :P. I can definitely testify that the gospel has blessed us very much.

We had zone conference this week!!!! Again we had it with two other zones which was awesome. I guess I could say that first we had interviews with the president on Wednesday which was always good. It was kind of crazy because that is the day of our district meeting, so we had them both at the same time. Elder Sanchez has nearly completed "the Maestro" and since one of the assistants was there he wanted to finish it. It´s pretty intense because you have to take a written and oral test by the assistant to finish it. So beforehand, Elder Sanchez asked me to teach the class for District meeting while he finished it. Thus, I had the opportunity to teach our district. Which, I was really pretty nervous about because it´s like usually about an hour and a half so I had no idea how to fill that time but it turned out way good. Mostly I think because we have a great district. I would ask questions and they would respond and ask even more questions and we got some good discussions going. It was great! It was about strenthening less actives which is the focus this change. So yeah-- then on Friday we got up early and left for Guayaquil for the conference. Again it was awesome. One of the assistants gave a presentation about the "Missionaries Plan of Salvation." About pre-mission, during mission, and post-mission life. It was really good to look at and have that perspective. Also of course Pres. and Hma. Gamboa´s presentations were really good.

Oh by the way-- I got your package Mom! Thanks I´m excited for the M&Ms and that was great to see all the graduation anouncements! Man I can´t believe Adam and Daniel and Amy and Liz Ealy and all them have graduated! It was crazy to see their pictures but great.

Alright well I´d better go. I´m gonna try to attach some pictures because I finally got that card reader, let me know if they go through!

Love,

Elder David Frome

Another Crazy Week =)

It's been another roller coaster of a week. Probably the craziest and saddest things that happened hit us early in the week. Remember the investigator I told you about who came up to us and told us she had been listening to the missionaries in Guayaquil and wanted to be baptized? She told us she wanted to be baptized as soon as possible? Well things were going great until Wednesday. We show up for an appointment and her family told us that she left and doesn't want to be baptized anymore. Yeah, like a bucket of water out of nowhere. That was really sad to hear about. But alas, if there is any good thing to be got out of it, it's the family is really humble and are really listening to us. So we'll continue working with them.

Other than that we still have lots of other investigators that we're teaching. One family in particular seems to be progressing fairly well. A single mother of 5 daughters (all about 10 and under I'd say) seem very interested. It was way exciting on Sunday--about five or ten minutes into the meeting, she walked in with her family!!! Ah, we've been inviting them for several weeks now and they finally came!!! I don't know, it was just really great to see them there.

Then Sunday Hermano Valencia came with us again driving us around in his car and oh man, it was funny, lol. He's just the type of guy who taks a lot and is funny without even trying.

All is well :) . I don't have much time left, so I'd better get going. Thanks for the letters and everything! I love you!

Love,

Elder David Frome

Another Week in Ecuador :)

Querido Madre y Padre,¡Hola gracias por su carta! sí, tuvimos otra buena semana. No había muchas muy buenas noticias pero está bien. Y sí tuvimos algunos hombres jovenes que nos acompañaron, sino la mayoría del tiempo teníamos Roberto y Josué. Roberto tiene 20 años y Josué tiene 18 años y ambos son muy chistosos entonces era divertido. Ójala que vayamos a tener más miembros con nosotros esta semana porque nos damos cuenta que los hombres jovenes son buenos para tener con nosotros, sino no son buenos para los investigadores. Nos parece que necesitamos tener más adultos para hacer amistades con los investigadores para que ellos puedan sentir más comodo asistiendo a la iglesia los días domingos. haha sí ciertamente vamos a tener que hablar en español cuando regreso a la casa. though one question, did you use the term "ójala." Literally translated it means "to God that such-and-such happens" so when I learned that I didn´t really like using it but apparantly it really means more like I wish or I hope. Did you use it on your mission?

But anyways, ok I´ll talk english now. Wow it sounds like everything is going good at home. that´s awesome Hunter and Wylie are entering the MTC so soon. That is awesome. I wish I could see the wall with all the mission plaques with us up. When all of us are out maybe you could take a picture of all our plaques, that´d be kool to see :) just too bad that the Frasers had to move so we couldn´t also see Michaels when he leaves.

But anyways, we had another good week this week. I dunno if there were any real spiritual highs, which kind of makes me sad because maybe I just don´t remember. It was kind of tough because again not many investigators came to the reunión sacramental. (haha ok so another Michael Jackson song just came on. It´s funny I don´t know how big it was there the news that Michael Jackson died but down here ever since that day it was all over the news it seems like they´ve been playing a bunch of his songs on the radio- funny how popular the US is outside of the US:).

Saturday evening we did have a kind of adventure though. We decided to try and find this man from Columbia that we ran into twice on the street and he said he wanted to listen to the missionaries. It had been a month since we first contacted him so we felt really bad it took us so long. But we finally decided to try and find his house from his directions. He said he lived a little ways out of our way so we weren´t sure, it was an area that we had never gone to before. We took one bus that we always take but this time stayed on it until the very end of the route. The place where it stopped was like an entire suburb of just houses of bamboo that are always humbling to see. As we walked from block to block it was just crazy to see how so many lived in such humble circumstances, I don´t even know how to describe it. As we were walking around the sun started to set and it was an incredible sight. At one point we walked past a bamboo house on stilts with the sun setting in the background and you could see out over all the houses. I just wished I had my camera, but then when I thought about my camera I almost just sick for thinking about how it is like over $200 dollars for that one little camera while these bamboo shackes couldn´t cost too much more than that here. I dunno, it was just another sight I won´t forget too soon. But finally we asked around (we asked if anyone knew the "Columbiano de dulces" lol because apparantly he sells candies) and finally we found his house. He wasn´t there but his wife was and oh man she was so nice and accepting. We started talking to her and she was just like "oh yeah, here let me open the gate for you." We talked to her for a bit and said they´re invited to church and we could pass by in the morning to bring them if that´s alright. We left her with a pamphlet and were about to leave but then she said we had to take some suckers for the road. Then she gave us both a bag full of homeade suckers :) it was awesome. Then sunday morning we left early so we could pass by them but since it was so far we still didn´t get there till about 8:40. We talked to him (oh by the way his name is David, I thought that was kool, it´s the first David i´ve met so far:) and he was really nice and said yeah he´d love to come to church but then asked what time it started. I was afraid to tell him because it started in 20 minutes so I realized it would be totally acceptable if he couldn´t, we should´ve talked to him earlier, but to my surprise he was like "oh ok then I´d better shower and get ready now." then told us he´d come. We had to pass by another family but told him we´d see him there. Well we passed by the next family but they weren´t there (yet again, sigh, lol). and we got to church a bit late. and then about 10 minutes later David arrived!! It was so awesome I could barely believe it. Here was a guy who´d we barely talked to 3 times and saw that morning, who found out that church starts in 20 minutes, got ready and came on his own. Talk about faith. I don´t know it was just so great to see how some are so willing to do the things of the Lord. We hadn´t taught him at all yet he came while others we´ve been teaching for weeks keep making excuses why they can´t come to church. It was just kind of a "breath of fresh air" to have him there. He´s a really nice guy. Though the only sad thing is, we realized that his house is about 2 blocks outside of our zone. yeah, que triste. We´ll have to tell the missionaries in Esperanza about him because that´s where he lives. Yeah kind of sad but I´m way happy we found him. I can see him progressing really fast. Other than that things are going really well.

Sunday night it was really funny we passed by the activities director of the ward, Hno Valencia because he said he had a reference for us. He asked us when we could go and we were like, hey, right now´s good, and he was like oh, well, ok. :) he put on a shirt and tie and then we jumped in his car and took off. Then I´m not sure why but he passed Bishop Banchon (the old bishop) and was like hey, you doing anything right now? we could use your help with some referencias. then from there Bishop Banchon jumped in the car and the 4 of us drove off the a few of there friends to introduce us. I´m not sure why but it was just a ton of fun, Hno. Valencia is a hilarious guy and Bishop Banchon is awesome as well and since it was Sunday after every lesson I would think they would take off but decided to accompany us more until finally the end of the day. Hno Valencia´s car is also very old and nearly broken down. a couple times we had to push it to get it started, lol. So yeah, it was just a good night. and I´ve forgotten how nice cars are to travel to lessons fast. :)

Alright well I´m running out of time so I´d better get going. Everything is going well. Thanks for the letters it´s great hearing from you! love you all!

Love,

Elder David Frome

!!! 5 Months !!

Hey Mom and Dad,

So you went deep sea fishing for the 4th of July?? Wow that's awesome...were the fish huge that you caught, Dad? That'd be so much fun, and ah..good times with the whole family barbequeing. It was crazy, the morning of the 4th of July we woke up and started going about our normal routine when Elder Sanchez was like, "whoa, Elder Frome you know what day it is? Its the 4th of July!" It took me a second to click that we were missing a national holiday back home, but finally I was like, "oh yeah!... aaah que triste!"

Well, things are going great. Firstly, Yes Elder Ayala is actually from Ecuador and is now training a new Elder Barcia, who is from Guayaquil. Yeah, what're the chances of two Ecuadorians together, one training the other. He's a really neat guy and realy nice so I'm looking forward to this change as well.

Also, I got your package! The cookbook looks great! and I love how it gives all the quantities in grams as well as ounces and such. (here everything you buy tells you the quantity in grams) Thanks for the letter from Elder Martineau's mom. Funny, I didn't realize how much I missed him until I read that e-mail. He was definitely an awesome missionary that I looked up to. He was a great example of working hard but enjoying every minute of it. It really was a blessing to have all the elders we did that first change. I hope I can finish my mission like he did. It sounds like he has a wonderful family as well.

We had a great week! We are teaching a ton of investigadores and many are progressing. Elder Sanchez wants me to start acting like a senior companion to help me push myself even more which is great. I think one of the highlights this week was actually early in the week on Tuesday. That night we had a split with a youth and Hno. Sosa. I went with a youth and visited a family who we only taught twice before. We had only given them the Book of Mormon the time before, so this lesson we were only going to read part of 3 Nephi 11. It's simple but a powerful witness of Christ and the highlight of the Book of Mormon. :) We found out that they had read the chapter (always a plus! funny the little things that make missionaries excited, like when investigators keep their committments). She liked who the voice of the Lord was. So we started reading and I tried to point out how amazing it must have been for the people who had just gone through three days of darkness and tempest and storms and earthquakes to finally see in the day of peace a man dressed in pure white descend from the heavens and declare "I am Jesus Christ, the Light and the Life of the World." After we read I asked if they were able to pray to know it was true and they said they had. Then I asked how it went. The mother smiled and said it was good. From there I knew they had received their answer and were ready for a baptismal date. From there I took them through a couple scriptures about baptism and the introduction to the Book of Mormon and asked if they believed they needed to be baptized. They said they did, so then I asked if they would be baptized on the first of August and they said Yes!!!! I don't know why, but I was just way excited and thought that was a really neat experience. Probably because Elder Sanchez wasn't there, just me and another young man and I felt that they were ready and needed the committment, so I did it! They're a family that I know will be blessed by the gospel.

The only downside this week was Sunday, we only had two investigators in church! That was really sad to see. I don't even know what happened. Saturday night we passed by several to invite them to church, so yeah I don't know...It was a dissappointment, but there's always next week I supposed. Alright well I'd better get going. Thanks for everything!

Love you!
Elder David Frome

P.S. I've officially completed FIVE MONTHS of my mission!!!! already!!! yeah, time sure flies, eh?