Bautismo!

Hey Mom and Dad,

I´m glad summer has finally arrived to Oregon! And it makes me smile to remember the times when bright sunshine from a cloudless sky was a good thing to enjoy, lol :P

And wow sounds like a lot is going on at home. That´s crazy to hear about Sierra getting married and Britanny (did you mean Bethany? Or is britanny another older sister?) that´s crazy but awesome. And thanks for sending the packages! I´ll be looking for them. Oh and I got a package from you this week with some pixy sticks and other crandy and some more hydrocortisione ointment. Thanks a lot that´ll be great to have plenty. And Elder Barrientos enjoyed trying pixy sticks for the first time, lol. Though he asked if you could do anything more with it or if it´s really just flavored sugar that you eat as it is, lol. But yeah it was fun.

But anyways, so this week has been crazy but awesome. The definite highlight was the baptism we had Thursday for Byron. It turned out really well mainly because out of nowhere came a group from the stake choir to sing (maybe Elder Barrientos knew about it because I didn´t). We had invited the counselor of the stake presidency so he invited them. They sang Más cerca Dios de tí and it was pretty much the best singing I´ve heard in Ecuador, lol. It was so angelic as soon as they started singing. They had the bass, tenor, soprano, alto and everything. It definitely brought the spirit so it was great.

Also this week we´ve been finding even more great people to teach. We found one family in particular that caught my attention. The mom is a friend of another investigator we were teaching and she is way nice and sounds very interested. When we went in and met the husband we found out they had been hearing the missionaries before and had gone to church and everything. I immediately thought what an amazing family.

Other than that everything is going good. Sorry I spent a lot of time trying to back up my pictures. Something happened to one of my memory cards because now it says that it has no format. I think I´ll send it to you to see if you can get the pictures off of it in that store you said you´ve gone to. I¨m pretty sure I backed it up but I think there were a few pictures I took that are on it that I didn´t back up. Hopefully I don´t lose them. Gotta love technology, lol.
Alright well thanks for everything, I love you!

Love,

Elder David Frome

Good Week :)

Hey Mom and Dad,

Thanks for the email! I´m glad it sounds like it´s been another good week. Just crazy weather, lol. That´s funny because here for the last week or so the weather has actually been a little strange just because it´s been so cloudy, which is amazing! It´s been a bit cooler thus making the temperature about perfect (only for a few hours midday is it real hot:). It´s been nice and even a couple of days I felt like I hardly sweat at all (as oppose to normal days where I get home to change and just feel wet, lol). And wow that´s crazy it´s graduation already! Wow Sofia is done with high school?! That´s so awesome. What´re her plans now for college? OSU like Anna? And haha that´s crazy to think Kraig, Carter, and Michael have graduated. Yeah I remember them from Young men, Clarissa is the one I can´t quite remember. But that´s sweet. And that´s neat that the missionaries are having baptisms there. And yeah life is definitely crazy as a missionary, every day your running in between appointments and if one thing comes up unplanned or one appointment goes too long it just throws everything off. I think it´d be even harder in the states because people are even more schedule oriented then here. Here everyone is pretty lax about being on time, which is kinda nice but bad at the same time because never does a meeting or activity start on time (you´ll be lucky to start within a half hour of when you planned it, lol). And wow Jenny had twins! That´s awesome you´ll have to tell her congratulations for me. That´ll be great to see them when I get back.

Well everything here is going well. Nothing too big happened this week, lol. I´d have to say it feels like the Lord is blessing us a lot. Yesterday in church one of our investigators, Azalia, came to church again (she´s the one who has been investigating for 2 years or so and is basically a member but hasn´t been baptized yet because her parents are Jehovahs Witness so are completely against the church. Which really is tough, we talked with her Dad once and oof, it didn´t go so well, lol). But yeah we had the Gospel principles class and afterwards she said she wanted to talk to us and said she wanted to put a baptismal date to finally be baptized. She said she´s tired of how her parents are against it and she knows it´s true so just needs to do it. Yeah we were excited, lol. But yeah we put the date for the 26th of this month. That´s gonna be a good baptismal service :). Then later that same night we passed by the family with the two amazing kids (remember them, that gave profound answers and love to read while the dad is a member less active). Well we passed by but the Dad wasn´t there so we couldn´t teach, But we talked with the step-mom and she told us how her kids now are excited and want to be baptized and asked us what to do to prepare them. Yeah, talk about an amazing day. We told her we just need to teach them a little bit but really the most important is that they come to church, read the scriptures and pray. She accepted that well and it sounds like she´s gonna start coming just to get the kids ready. I´m pretty sure that thanks to the example of the kids children the entire family is going to come back into the Gospel. But yeah, it´s the life of a missionary- each investigator we have is asking us when they can be baptized. Can´t see how things can get better than that, lol. But yeah I think it´s just more tender mercies of the Lord to help us remember He´s there and wants to bless us.

Other than that we should have a baptism this week for Byron, the older brother of the two that we baptized last week. It´s neat we´ve assigned the young men to give the talks and prayers and everything so it should be good. We also have a movie night planned on Friday that should be good. Hopefully more people come.

But anyways, so in the house it´s been fun getting to know Elder Palmer and Elder Veizaga. They´re both great guys. It was kool the other night they came home way excited because they had placed 4 baptismal date with a family. I asked them which family it was and when they told me who it was I got way excited too because it was the same family that I found with Elder Vinueza! Do you remember I told you about one rainy night when all our appointments fell through but then we remembered one house that always said hi as we walked by but we thought they were dollies but felt like we should just go by and see what happens. Then when we went by they turned out to be an amazingly awesome family. Well it was the same family! I think of all the investigators you teach in the mission there´s a special connection you feel with those you find and start teaching from the beginning. I don´t know why but it´s just different somehow to introduce them into the gospel and help them understand and learn and see the gospel seed be planted and just start to grow. But yeah that´s how it was with them. So now I´m excited to be here and maybe get to see the baptism. :)

Well I´d better get going, thanks for the email! Love you!

Love,

Elder David Frome

Bautismo!

Hey Mom and Dad,

Haha I´m glad it sounds like you´ve had another great week. And yeah that´s interesting there´s a volcano exploding because I haven´t heard anything about it, lol. And yeah sounds like you´ve been having great weather, lol. I´ll never forget the days of football when we´d get terrible rainy weather but Nyquist would always tell us that it´s “bulldog weather.” But that´s sweet that Queen street was flooded. Must´ve been like here when the streets flood. I bet the kids must´ve had a fun time.

But anyways, I got a package from the youth of Oak Creek ward today that was fun to see. Letters from everyone. It´s sad I think I know less and less of the Youth now. It was fun Tad wrote me asking if I remembered the days when I gave him rides to school from Seminary, he said those were the “good ól days” lol. Also looks like Sister Dunmire Beer put in a disk with “mensajes mormones” that looks way good. One of them I´m way excited about entitled “completely alone” taken from the talk of Elder Holland about Christ. It should be way good to use in lessons. Just little spiritual thoughts to help us remember what´s important.

Oh and I got a letter from Amanda Ostler today telling me that she got her mission call! Though wait, I think she mentioned she called you to tell you, which would mean you already knew, and didn´t tell me! Lol j-k I´m not sure if she said she did or didn´t. But that´s way cool that she´s going to Chicago. Crazy how life goes. She´ll be a great missionary.
But anyways, well this week has definitely been a crazy one. The first good thing was that we had a baptism for two youth on Saturday that was way good. The mom is a member but has been less active but recently is coming back. It´s an awesome family of just the mom with her 4 boys. The youngest is about 6 and way hyperactive, lol. The oldest is 15. The two who were baptized were the two middle children of 11 and 13 years. So yeah hopefully soon the oldest, Byron will be able to feel the need to be baptized. We´re going to head over tonight with some Dinosaur cookies and we´ll watch a movie for a Family Home Evening to celebrate the baptism :). Here are some pictures of the family. They´re all fun kids.

But anyways, oh and just so you know this was the last week of the change, thus the entire week we were having Changes in the Zone. After my experiences of my last 3 changes starting on Monday night I started to feel nervous, lol. Anytime the phone rang my heart jumped thinking it might be the assistants to tell me I´m going to be changed, lol. And the worst part is most of the time it was the assistants with changes for different elders in the zone so I would talk to them. I couldn´t sleep easy until finally last night the last of the changes were made and I now have the security of knowing that I will be staying in Quevedo for at least 6 more weeks and I´ll still be with Elder Barrientos, “phew!” But there were quite a few changes made in our zone. Over 10 Elders were moved, including all three of the district leaders. But ah well it was probably for the best. We already got a new Elder in our house, Elder Palmer from Utah. He´s stilly pretty fresh with just 6 months but last night we found out that he´s going to be District leader so that´s awesome. The only fault is that he´s a bigger soccer fan than football, lol. Oh boy and now that the World Cup in Soccer is going on it´s going to be crazy, lol. Have you heard about that, btw?
So yeah all is good I´m excited to have another 6 weeks here in Quevedo. There are so many people that we found last change that should be ready for baptism this change. Hopefully all goes well!!

Oh and before I forget, I think that´ll be fine to send a pair of my old shoes. In fact I remember Elder Sanchez received a package of new shoes and I don’t think it cost much at all. Though I was thinking maybe you could look to see if there´s another pair of good shoes, I remember the black ones were good but just a half size too small. If there aren´t any other good ones the black pair is fine but maybe you could check the size and see if there is any other pair just a little bigger. But yeah that´d be great if you could send and it doesn’t cost too much.

Ok well thanks for everything! I love you and hope you have another great week!

Love,
Elder David Frome

!!!FELIZ DIA DE ANIVERSARIO!!!

Hey Mom and Dad

¡¡¡¡FELÍZ DÍA DE ANIVERSARIO!!!!! (I´m actually not sure if that´s how you say Happy anniversary, but I´d imagine it´s something like that :). Wow 29 years that´s so awesome. One of my favorite visuals to use during lessons is our family photo that we took in front of the Provo temple. It´s great to testify of the principle that the gospel blesses families as well as families can be eternal. Now, I´ll get to tell everyone how many years the Frome family has existed.
That´s fun that the ward got to hear about the missionaries too. And wow yeah that´s way awesome the lines you shared from the hymn. Hymns can be so powerful I thought too often when we are singing we miss the message that they have. So that´s neat you shared that. And that sounds like it was a fun activity that some of the families did to live off of food storage for a week. That would be pretty intense. It´s kool in every house the missionaries stay in there is one big 72 hour kit for each companionship. They always look old and worn out, it´d be interesting to see what they have in them. But on top there is the strict statement saying that we can´t open them without the president´s permission, lol.

But anyways, I´m glad you got my cards. Hmm that stinks about the one card not working very well. Yeah I´m not sure if it´s the one that didn´t work before. I suppose it could be. It might be a good idea to just throw it away after. It´s not worth the frustration dealing with it. I do have a copy of all the pictures here on a disk so if it is broken I have the pictures here. That would be sad though. Oh and so here are some pictures that we´ve taken. Both me and Elder Barrientos have realized that we´ve really kind of been slacking in taking pictures up to this point in our mission so we´re trying to take more. Here are some that we´ve taken. Saturday night we had a surprise visit by a giant leafy looking grasshopper type insect, lol. It was funny apparently it came flying in and looked like a small green bat. So we had fun taking pictures of that. Also there´s a picture with the mamita Valencia and her family that gives us lunch every Sunday. She is an awesome sister, lol. She has been a mamita for the missionaries for like 15 or 20 years so she has so many stories and has known so many missionaries it´s amazing. Plus, she´s just hilarious, lol. I´m gonna try to send 7 photos all together so hopefully they go through. There´s one of me and Elder Barrientos in the Zone Conference when we´re both dressed in suits so you can see a photo of Elder Barrientos.

But anyways, oh and that´s fine no worries about being busy with the election. That´s neat that you´re doing so much for it. Here I think it´s about election time because every now and then we´ll see a parade of cars go by honking horns with signs of some candidate, lol. Oh and before I forget yeah I´m doing good on sleep. It´s funny almost each time the alarm goes off at 5:30 I´ll hear it, but then feel so tired that I say to myself “man it´s so early! I´m only getting up if Elder Barrientos gets up. . . “ then I glance at Elder Barrientos bed and he´ll still be fast asleep, lol. I guess he doesn´t even hear the alarm most of the time.

But alright, well as for news here all is doing good. Nothing too exciting has happen this week. Just working and finding as usual. We´re finding a lot of good people and yesterday we had some in church that we hadn´t had yet which was awesome. We´re teaching one young man named Stalin and his dad is completely against the church so I guess he kinda snuck out to go to church, lol. But he´s 19 so it´s ok. Also Azalia we are also teaching and her parents are Jehovas Witnesses so that´s even harder. But somehow both came to church so it was great.

I think the experience that really caught my attention happened last night. We were looking for a family that a member gave us as a reference and we found a beautiful family of 4. The father is a member but hasn´t gone in 8 years. He had an 11 year old son and 8 year old daughter that are both very smart. I realized how clever they were when we were teaching and the kind of answers they gave us. We were teaching the first principles of how God is our lovenly father and the blessings that we´ve received in our lives. I asked the common question of “what are some of the ways we can show our love for our Heavenly Father?” I use that question often and almost always hear similar answers like we can pray, read the scriptures, go to church, keep the commandments, etc. But this time the answer that the 11 year old gave caught my attention. It was amazing he heard the question, thought for a second, then told us “by just being a good person.” A simple answer yet to me profound. He went on by saying for example we can help other people. I think it was something that too often we forget. One of the best ways we can ashow Heavenly father we love him is in the class of person we are. How we live and act. It was a good reminder for me, especially strong because it was given by a 11 year old.

All right well I´d better get going. Thanks for the email! I hope you have another great week! Love you!

Love,
Elder David Frome

Hola de Ecuador

Hey Mom and Dad,
Thanks for your email! I´m glad it sounds like you´ve had a great week! That´s awesome to hear about the baptism for Elder Fuller and Lopez. And thanks I like to think that missionaries live and act in such a way to help lift the life of everyone that surrounds them on a daily basis.
But anyways, as for your questions Elder Sanchez goes home no less than 2 weeks (crazy!) and funny thing I´m not actually sure what the church did to extend his visa or how it worked exactly. Often the visas that we get last a month or so longer than the exact year or two year mark, like the censo I have now will keep me legal here until halfway through march of 2011, then I´m pretty sure your passport will keep you good till a month after the censo expires. So yeah maybe he just did that. It is funny, though, because his certificate from the church authorizing him as an official minister of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints expired so officially he´s no longer a minister, (oop Elder Barrientos just came over to show me something with the email page and got confused with one thing and then accidentally closed the whole internet and was like “oh fetch” in his calm low voice. I laughed and pushed him back to his computer, good thing I´m typing this letter on Microsoft Word first :)
And that´s great I´m glad you got the memory cards. Funny thing I sent it certified but then I forgot to give you the code to be able to track it on the internet. But ah well I figured just having it stamped certified would be the important part putting pressure that it would get delivered. I didn´t actually tell them they were memory cards in the package, also I´m glad it was delivered well enough. I guess the mission went over the top with sending heavy letters and spent way too much so now they´ve made a new rule that if you want to send mail, you have to find the post office in your area and send it through there so I think we´ll be using the correos of Ecuador more often now.
But anyways, well this week has been awesome. Firstly we had interviews with the President on Monday then on Tuesday we had Zone conference in Babahoyo! That was way awesome. It was fun because we had it in the same chapel that I assisted when I served there. It was kind of crazy too because before it started when we were all sitting down Elder Sanchez waved me over and asked me if I had ever conducted a zone conference before (which is funny to think now, because being it my first change as zone leader, of course I´d never conducted one before, though now that I think about it, I guess I had conducted one in the MTC before I left, lol). But yeah I told him no and he said well this´ll be my first time, lol. Then he gave me a paper with the program and told me what I needed to do to conduct the zone conference. Yeah kinda made my heart jump for a bit but it´s really pretty easy to conduct. I was a little nervous standing up to start and announce everything but after that it was fine. It was fun but at the same time I tried to be a bit more formal. In District meetings I´m usually way laid back conducting but I always noticed when the Zone leaders conduct zone conference it´s all very professional so that´s what I tried to do. So yeah that was fun to be able to welcome everyone to the zone conference and conduct. Then zone conference itself was way good, as always. One part that was neat was the presentation the Assistants gave, was in large part, in English. Elder Sanchez obviously knows English and Elder Aguirre (from Mexico) knows english fairly well and they must´ve prepared well. They spoke of the importance of the companionship and two being stronger than one. Elder Barrientos afterwards said he was lost. But it was good because the mission has been putting so much stress on the importance of studying english and they said that in the changes the mission will slowly progress until entire zone conferences will be given in English. They said that other missions with American mission presidents are already doing that. It´s pretty neat how much emphasis they´re putting on it. I think I already told you how the mission received a set of manuals for studying Spanish for all the latin missionaries. Elder Barrientos has been studying very well but not progressing as fast as he wanted so I guess he asked the President for permission to get up at 5:30 each morning to be able to study more. It was funny he didn´t tell me till we got back to the house and he told me that he asked permission and that president said yes, but asked if I knew what else President said. Realizing quickly what else he must´ve said I joked “and he said that your comp can sleep in as normal???” Elder Barrientos laughed and said “ah no Elder Frome, he said I can get up together with my companion.” Yeah I half joked asking why would President give such permission. But it´s all right. The first time we set the alarm for 5:30 I heard go it off but Elder Barrientos slept straight through it, so I decided just to sleep in, lol. But yeah now we´re getting up early to study. Yeah less sleep but eh, now I´m sure we´ll have more companionship unity at least.
But alright well I´d better get going. Thanks for the email! Love you!
Love,
Elder David Frome