Hey Mom and Dad,
I´m glad it sounds like all is well back at home. That´s neat to hear about all the news in the ward and sounds like that new Spanish branch is going great. So is Elder Fuller working in our ward and the Spanish branch. Seems like that´d be hard to work and teach in both Spanish and English. I think it´s really a blessing to be able to just submerge yourself in Spanish down here. We´re currently teaching a English class for anyone who wants to come in the ward hoping they´ll bring friends and this last week I taught how to bear your testimony in English. At the end we had some practice bearing their testimony and it wasn´t bad. Then they wanted me to bear my testimony in English. Oh man, it was rough, lol. When I started my mind just went blank of what I used to say in English, lol. My first sentence was “I know that, er, Jesus Christ es nuestro Salvador, oh er, is our savior. . . “ lol. That´ll be neat next week that Walker and two other RMs from the football team will speak at the branch. I didn´t realize that there were 3 RMs on the OSU football team but that´s awesome :)
Well everything here is going well. We´re working hard to prepare our investigadores as much as we can for a “Noche blanca” that we have planned in the Zone for this Saturday. I guess the Stake Presidente really likes noche blancas here so he´s asking us to plan them more often. At the beginning of the month the sum of all the goals of all the missionaries was around 40 baptisms for this Saturday. Sadly, that number has decreased to around 25, which is still a great number, just not what we were hoping for. From our ward we have 3 that have the desire to be baptized. Two are youth, who are cousins that we´ve been teaching for just a little over a month. We found them my first week here. They´re excited and already have lots of friends in the church so we´re excited.
Well the highlight of the week was definitely this Wednesday. We had Zone Conference and this time we had Elder Gavarett of the Seventy (and president of the Area I believe) preside. Oh man that was an amazing experience. It was neat too because we had the Conference in Babahoyo, lol. Usually I guess they have conference here in Quevedo because we are a good distance from Guayaquil and there are 3 zones close to have it here. But this time I guess they didn´t want to travel too far, so we had it in Babahoyo (which is 2 hours from Quevedo) and in fact we had it in the same chapel of my old area!!! Lol it was fun to go back and walk the same streets and see the same chapel of my old area and see all the missionaries from my old Zone. Also it was kool to see Elder Sanchez, he is now the zone leader there so he directed the conference. But yeah the conference was amazing.
Hermana Gamboa spoke and told us about a new effective program for language study that the mission is starting. It´s an English study program that the mission and many other missions in the area are starting to help learn English. It sounds pretty neat, requiring the help of all gringo companions, lol. So I´m kind of excited to help Elder Vinueza learn. It´s pretty neat, with activities and weekly assessments and everything. And I guess that if you really stick with it and sign up online at the end you can take a test and will get a certificate of BYU worthy of college credit of an English class. Yeah, pretty sweet.
We heard from Elder Gavarett and oh man, it was powerful. He was funny but spiritual at the same time. He talked about why we´re here and why we came. How we can help the investigators come to church and prepare them for baptism. A lot of how we can improve those basics. And he gave us awesome suggestions. After about an hour or so he let us take another break, lol. After the break he had President and Sis. Gamboa come to the front and talked about how it was when they received their calling to be President of the mission. It was neat to hear how President Gamboa got two phone calls, one from Elder Perry and another call a month later to come to Salt Lake to have an interview with President Monson. It was amazing to hear how he was called to preside over this mission. Then he talked about temple recommends. First he asked us what signatures we have on our recommends. Well 3, our Stake President, our bishop, and our own. Those are the three in order to assure that we´re worthy to enter. He said that on his own he had the signature of one of the apostles. Then he asked Sister Gamboa how many signatures she had. She said two, her own and that of President Gamboa. Then he asked Presidente Gamboa how many he had on his. He said two, his own as well as his own. We were all amazed. He told us that just temple presidents and mission presidents are authorized to sign their own temple recommend. That´s how much confidence the first Presidency has in them. That was way neat to hear and I think important for us to realize how truly inspired President Gamboa is and how much more we should hearken to his counsel. After that he talked more on how we should find families and leave blessings in the home. Again, powerful. I think after all he spoke for maybe 2 or 3 hours. But funny thing was no one seemed to notice the time. It was such a spiritual lift it was amazing. Easily my favorite conference so far.
Then after the conference was over, when we were all setting up chairs and such me and Elder Díaz wanted to ask President if it´d be alright if we visit one family that live near the church that were converts. But when we went to ask, President asked us to wait one moment and took me by the arm and told me to go wait by one door down the hallway. Yeah, I immediately thought back to something I could have done wrong to be in trouble, lol. Inside that door, Elder Gavarett was interviewing Elder Cevallos. When they were done he asked me to come in. Yeah, being asked to be interviewed by one of the Seventy, nerve racking! Lol but it was interesting because he interviewed me like normal, just asking how the mission was and my goals and such. It was way neat but I was a little nervous. But yeah it was kool. Then afterwards Elder Díaz got permission to see the family that we had taught so we went to see them real quick before going back to Quevedo! It was awesome! The mom, Julia started to cry when she saw Elder Díaz and me coming, lol. But it was neat.
But ok other than that all is good and I´m out of time so I´d better go! Thanks for everything! Love you!
Love,
Elder David Frome
Carnaval!
Hey Mom and Dad,
I´m glad sounds like you had a great week on the cruise! That´s always neat all the places you see especially the ruins of the native americans. That always is a good testimony builder to see the remains of the people in the Book of Mormon. Especially amazing to think that most of the natives here are really descendants of Lehi. I love the parts in the Book of Mormon where Mormon or other prophets speak directly to their descendents or make promises about them. It´s powerful to think that a lot of it is for them. And yeah that´s funny to think how close you were to me down here. So close, yet so far : And neat so you got caught in a tropical storm in Guatemala? Haha yeah it´d probably be like what it´s like down here. We´ve been caught a couple of times out walking when the hard rain hits. But I dunno, for me it´s not bad at all, in fact I kinda like it, lol. Its better than the beating sun that we get a lot :)
So anyways, oh and before I forget, HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!!! Here I think I heard them call it “Día de amor y amistades” (Day of love and friendship). So yeah it sounds like they do have it here, they just don´t really celebrate it, lol. In the states it´s way commercialized I think (all hallmark:) so yeah for the second time in my life I didn´t have to worry a bit about Valentines day!!!! lol (speakin of which was crazy to think how last valentines day I was in the MTC starting my mission!!). But I think the real reason they don´t celebrate it here is because of another bigger crazier and better (in my opinión) holiday that they don´t have in the states! It´s called “Carnaval” which I´m not sure how it translates in English. But it´s like a 3 day national holiday (and I think they have it in other south american countries as well, at least in Brazil I´ve heard about it). So imagine if you will, a world at war. Not a war of iron tanks and guns, but of Water balloons and squirt guns!! lol just imagine the entire country taking three days off work to have a giant water fight! And that´s Carnaval. I remember when I first got here Elder Sanchez telling me about it and I thought how silly a thing. But it really looks quite fun. There´s a little blow up pool on every block and everyone runs around with buckets of water. Some go all out and get mud or dust like war paint on their faces and get others dirty. It sounds like a lot of people head out of town for the beach or head to the pools. Many wait on the side of the road with giant water guns to soak cars and anyone in the back of trucks as they drive by. We have to watch out as we walk down the streets because there are many waiting on balconies with buckets of water to soak the innocent pedestrians as they walk by. Yeah and seeing as how this fun innocent holiday can be somewhat dangerous for missionaries (it´s funny some see us and show respect and try not to get us wet, while I think others target us to try and get us wet:) we´ve received word from the President to come back to the house and stay inside between 2 and 6 in the afternoon (AKA: prime soaking time). We had to stay in the house starting Saturday until this Wednesday. (yeah, the soaking lasts more than just the 3 days, lol). So that´s helped a lot, though they are still out soaking after 6, it´s just not nearly as bad. And up till now we have not been soaked yet :P though yesterday we had a close call when a group saw us walk by and one came out with a bucket of water and tried to chase us down. But alas, she couldn´t compete with our agility as we quickly sprinted away :P. but yeah it´s crazy how all out they go, like today we had a tough time finding an internet café because everything was closed. But yeah, that´s been the latest fun culture fact I´ve found. I´m still asking where Carnaval started, or what the origin is, lol. No one seems to know more than the fact that they´ve always played since they were little :)
So anyways, other than that everything is going good. We´re still finding a lot of new people. In fact Tuesday night was going pretty rough when all of our appointments fell through as well as all of our back up plans. Yet again we were out walking in the rain at night. We were thinking of what we should do when we remembered one two-story house on a hill that we walk up about every day and the family inside almost always waves and says hi as we walk by. It must´ve been meant to be because on the way we ran into a young convert who was baptized a year ago, but hasn´t been coming, named Irvin. He had nothing to do either so decided to come with us. We met this family (which was actually several extended families of cousins and aunts and uncles, as is common to see here:) and found out that they were actually listening to the missionaries about a year ago. They brought out a couple plastic chairs so we just talk them right outside but for some reason that lesson just went amazing. Probably a mix of how receptive they were and the powerful testimony of Irvin (who´s inactive, yeah funny how even though he´s been inactive he hasn´t forgotten the truthfulness of the gospel and how he felt when he was converted). They all committed to read and pray easily. The next time we came we found that only a few had prayed (always a disappointment). But funny thing, out of all who prayed it was only the 10 year old girl named Julie who couldn´t stop talking about how she felt when she prayed. It was funny the first lesson I remember she was listening but I didn´t really think too much of how she was receiving it (usually when we teach families I try to include the kids when I can, but always the focus is on the parents or adults first). But before she went to bed she felt prompted to do what we had said to pray, she said she just felt like it was “a mission” she had to do, lol. And when she prayed she said she just felt like someone telling her that everything we said was the truth. When we invited them to church and came by later she was the first one ready to go. Lol just another example of how pure and receptive kids are when it comes to the gospel. We´re hoping that family goes far :)
Alright well i´m out of time so i´d better get going. Thanks again for the packages and letters! Love you!
Love,
Elder David Frome
I´m glad sounds like you had a great week on the cruise! That´s always neat all the places you see especially the ruins of the native americans. That always is a good testimony builder to see the remains of the people in the Book of Mormon. Especially amazing to think that most of the natives here are really descendants of Lehi. I love the parts in the Book of Mormon where Mormon or other prophets speak directly to their descendents or make promises about them. It´s powerful to think that a lot of it is for them. And yeah that´s funny to think how close you were to me down here. So close, yet so far : And neat so you got caught in a tropical storm in Guatemala? Haha yeah it´d probably be like what it´s like down here. We´ve been caught a couple of times out walking when the hard rain hits. But I dunno, for me it´s not bad at all, in fact I kinda like it, lol. Its better than the beating sun that we get a lot :)
So anyways, oh and before I forget, HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!!! Here I think I heard them call it “Día de amor y amistades” (Day of love and friendship). So yeah it sounds like they do have it here, they just don´t really celebrate it, lol. In the states it´s way commercialized I think (all hallmark:) so yeah for the second time in my life I didn´t have to worry a bit about Valentines day!!!! lol (speakin of which was crazy to think how last valentines day I was in the MTC starting my mission!!). But I think the real reason they don´t celebrate it here is because of another bigger crazier and better (in my opinión) holiday that they don´t have in the states! It´s called “Carnaval” which I´m not sure how it translates in English. But it´s like a 3 day national holiday (and I think they have it in other south american countries as well, at least in Brazil I´ve heard about it). So imagine if you will, a world at war. Not a war of iron tanks and guns, but of Water balloons and squirt guns!! lol just imagine the entire country taking three days off work to have a giant water fight! And that´s Carnaval. I remember when I first got here Elder Sanchez telling me about it and I thought how silly a thing. But it really looks quite fun. There´s a little blow up pool on every block and everyone runs around with buckets of water. Some go all out and get mud or dust like war paint on their faces and get others dirty. It sounds like a lot of people head out of town for the beach or head to the pools. Many wait on the side of the road with giant water guns to soak cars and anyone in the back of trucks as they drive by. We have to watch out as we walk down the streets because there are many waiting on balconies with buckets of water to soak the innocent pedestrians as they walk by. Yeah and seeing as how this fun innocent holiday can be somewhat dangerous for missionaries (it´s funny some see us and show respect and try not to get us wet, while I think others target us to try and get us wet:) we´ve received word from the President to come back to the house and stay inside between 2 and 6 in the afternoon (AKA: prime soaking time). We had to stay in the house starting Saturday until this Wednesday. (yeah, the soaking lasts more than just the 3 days, lol). So that´s helped a lot, though they are still out soaking after 6, it´s just not nearly as bad. And up till now we have not been soaked yet :P though yesterday we had a close call when a group saw us walk by and one came out with a bucket of water and tried to chase us down. But alas, she couldn´t compete with our agility as we quickly sprinted away :P. but yeah it´s crazy how all out they go, like today we had a tough time finding an internet café because everything was closed. But yeah, that´s been the latest fun culture fact I´ve found. I´m still asking where Carnaval started, or what the origin is, lol. No one seems to know more than the fact that they´ve always played since they were little :)
So anyways, other than that everything is going good. We´re still finding a lot of new people. In fact Tuesday night was going pretty rough when all of our appointments fell through as well as all of our back up plans. Yet again we were out walking in the rain at night. We were thinking of what we should do when we remembered one two-story house on a hill that we walk up about every day and the family inside almost always waves and says hi as we walk by. It must´ve been meant to be because on the way we ran into a young convert who was baptized a year ago, but hasn´t been coming, named Irvin. He had nothing to do either so decided to come with us. We met this family (which was actually several extended families of cousins and aunts and uncles, as is common to see here:) and found out that they were actually listening to the missionaries about a year ago. They brought out a couple plastic chairs so we just talk them right outside but for some reason that lesson just went amazing. Probably a mix of how receptive they were and the powerful testimony of Irvin (who´s inactive, yeah funny how even though he´s been inactive he hasn´t forgotten the truthfulness of the gospel and how he felt when he was converted). They all committed to read and pray easily. The next time we came we found that only a few had prayed (always a disappointment). But funny thing, out of all who prayed it was only the 10 year old girl named Julie who couldn´t stop talking about how she felt when she prayed. It was funny the first lesson I remember she was listening but I didn´t really think too much of how she was receiving it (usually when we teach families I try to include the kids when I can, but always the focus is on the parents or adults first). But before she went to bed she felt prompted to do what we had said to pray, she said she just felt like it was “a mission” she had to do, lol. And when she prayed she said she just felt like someone telling her that everything we said was the truth. When we invited them to church and came by later she was the first one ready to go. Lol just another example of how pure and receptive kids are when it comes to the gospel. We´re hoping that family goes far :)
Alright well i´m out of time so i´d better get going. Thanks again for the packages and letters! Love you!
Love,
Elder David Frome
Cockroach War
Hey Mom and Dad,
Well things here are going great. Oh one fun thing I forgot to mention last week was about our house. I don´t know if I told you but one of the perks is that there is HOT WATER!!!! Ok well just our shower has a little coffee pot shaped attachment that heats the water as it comes out. Oh man it feels so nice. Like I´m back in the states :P lol But one of the down sides are the cockroaches. Did you know cockroaches come in all different sizes? Like some as small as ants and others bigger than your thumb. I think they’re worst of all just because they´re so fast it´s hard to kill them. But yeah we´ve got a ton. In fact we are in a current state of war against them. After several failed attempts at peaceful negotiations in the first week we decided enough was enough and officially declared war. Starting with the battle of the gas tank where we discovered an undercover bunker underneath. We realized it must have been a clever scheme by the cockroaches to lure us into making a deadly mistake, because Elder Rojas first thought was to take out a bottle of spray axe, turn it into a flame thrower and burn them. Good thing Elder Vinueza smartly reminded him that it was a tank of gas, thus that idea may not turn out so good. The next being the fight over the refrigerator. That is an ugly battle, with many casualties on both sides. Including many spoiled eggs and ruined goodies. Me and Elder Smith ran over to the supermarket for more ammunition, we opted for the Dragon insect killer with a pump spray. We thought it´d be more effective, kind of like the Gatling gun from WW2 :P After we cleaned everything out we sprayed about everything and after realizing the air was thick of insecticide we made a momentary retreat and left for the day to wait out the cockroaches. After that first day it appears we´ve wiped out the greater part of the army. But we´re afraid they´ve just withdrawn and are planning a counterattack in the study room of Elder Rojas and Smith. Time will tell, lol. We´ve told Hermana Gamboa and she gave us permission to look for another house and we´ve already found one. So we may end up simply making a strategic retreat and leaving the war to the next occupant, lol. But yeah it´s fun :)
Alright well looks like I´m out of time so I´d better go. Love you!
Love,
Elder David Frome
PS- Oh and yeah man I can barely believe I´m over halfway! It´s kind of scary looking back at how fast the first year went by because I know the second will go by even faster! I didn´t do anything too special, lol. In fact the day the assistants slept over because we had interviews with the President the next day, so yeah the day after though we made tacos because Elder Rojas is a professional chef from Mexico so that was sweet :)
Well things here are going great. Oh one fun thing I forgot to mention last week was about our house. I don´t know if I told you but one of the perks is that there is HOT WATER!!!! Ok well just our shower has a little coffee pot shaped attachment that heats the water as it comes out. Oh man it feels so nice. Like I´m back in the states :P lol But one of the down sides are the cockroaches. Did you know cockroaches come in all different sizes? Like some as small as ants and others bigger than your thumb. I think they’re worst of all just because they´re so fast it´s hard to kill them. But yeah we´ve got a ton. In fact we are in a current state of war against them. After several failed attempts at peaceful negotiations in the first week we decided enough was enough and officially declared war. Starting with the battle of the gas tank where we discovered an undercover bunker underneath. We realized it must have been a clever scheme by the cockroaches to lure us into making a deadly mistake, because Elder Rojas first thought was to take out a bottle of spray axe, turn it into a flame thrower and burn them. Good thing Elder Vinueza smartly reminded him that it was a tank of gas, thus that idea may not turn out so good. The next being the fight over the refrigerator. That is an ugly battle, with many casualties on both sides. Including many spoiled eggs and ruined goodies. Me and Elder Smith ran over to the supermarket for more ammunition, we opted for the Dragon insect killer with a pump spray. We thought it´d be more effective, kind of like the Gatling gun from WW2 :P After we cleaned everything out we sprayed about everything and after realizing the air was thick of insecticide we made a momentary retreat and left for the day to wait out the cockroaches. After that first day it appears we´ve wiped out the greater part of the army. But we´re afraid they´ve just withdrawn and are planning a counterattack in the study room of Elder Rojas and Smith. Time will tell, lol. We´ve told Hermana Gamboa and she gave us permission to look for another house and we´ve already found one. So we may end up simply making a strategic retreat and leaving the war to the next occupant, lol. But yeah it´s fun :)
Alright well looks like I´m out of time so I´d better go. Love you!
Love,
Elder David Frome
PS- Oh and yeah man I can barely believe I´m over halfway! It´s kind of scary looking back at how fast the first year went by because I know the second will go by even faster! I didn´t do anything too special, lol. In fact the day the assistants slept over because we had interviews with the President the next day, so yeah the day after though we made tacos because Elder Rojas is a professional chef from Mexico so that was sweet :)
QUEVEDO
Hey Mom and Dad,
Haha sounds like it´s been another great week at home. lol So the Lundgreen's came over with a nice sharp axe to “take care of the rooster?” haha that´s great. Yeah I´m sure the chicken was nice and fresh like what we eat here.
Well I have to say Quevedo is awesome. Just this first week we´ve found a ton of new investigators who are ready to listen to us. Several have already prayed and said they believe it´s true! It´s way exciting. I´ve never found so many new good investigators in the first week in any of my sectors. And with my companion, Elder Vinueza, we´re teaching great. I feel like he´s one of the best companions I´ve had yet, in terms of teaching in synch with each other instead of one talking a ton. I think it´s because we´re both pretty equal in terms of how outgoing we are. Like I´ve always felt just naturally reserved while a lot of elders are way outgoing. And so Elder Vinueza seems about the same, so we both just work off each other teaching. I´m excited to have a great change with him at least. Also I´m excited we´re working pretty well with the mission leader and the ward in having activities and things.
I have gotten through the first week safely as district leader, lol. But now this week will be the first test, one companionship in the district need a baptism interview Wednesday. That is probably the most intimidating thing for me. It´s awesome living with the zone leaders because they said Wednesday morning they´ll teach me how to hold a baptism interview :)
Alright well I´d better get going. Thanks for everything! oh and my feet are doing great. I think starting this week we´re going go out running in the mornings. Quevedo has some awesome hills that I think I´d like to do some sprints on. It´s been so long since I´ve had a good run!
I love you and hope you have another great week!
Love,
David
Haha sounds like it´s been another great week at home. lol So the Lundgreen's came over with a nice sharp axe to “take care of the rooster?” haha that´s great. Yeah I´m sure the chicken was nice and fresh like what we eat here.
Well I have to say Quevedo is awesome. Just this first week we´ve found a ton of new investigators who are ready to listen to us. Several have already prayed and said they believe it´s true! It´s way exciting. I´ve never found so many new good investigators in the first week in any of my sectors. And with my companion, Elder Vinueza, we´re teaching great. I feel like he´s one of the best companions I´ve had yet, in terms of teaching in synch with each other instead of one talking a ton. I think it´s because we´re both pretty equal in terms of how outgoing we are. Like I´ve always felt just naturally reserved while a lot of elders are way outgoing. And so Elder Vinueza seems about the same, so we both just work off each other teaching. I´m excited to have a great change with him at least. Also I´m excited we´re working pretty well with the mission leader and the ward in having activities and things.
I have gotten through the first week safely as district leader, lol. But now this week will be the first test, one companionship in the district need a baptism interview Wednesday. That is probably the most intimidating thing for me. It´s awesome living with the zone leaders because they said Wednesday morning they´ll teach me how to hold a baptism interview :)
Alright well I´d better get going. Thanks for everything! oh and my feet are doing great. I think starting this week we´re going go out running in the mornings. Quevedo has some awesome hills that I think I´d like to do some sprints on. It´s been so long since I´ve had a good run!
I love you and hope you have another great week!
Love,
David
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