Week Twenty Two In Ecuador - Monday, April 21, 2014 - Semana Santa Celebration

 

First off I am glad you guys had a great time in St. George for spring break it sounded like a blast!  

So this week started off great and we were working crazy hard and we got a bunch of stuff done and it was really nice to be having success and new investagators and to feel good about the way that we were working. However as the week went on it seemed like we just slowly had less and less success and our investigators sorta just dissappeared and were lost. Which is something you learn really fast on a mission. That somehow some people can just disappear..... like they'll be in their house all day everyday and then one day you'll never find them again..... maybe they just leave or maybe they just get really good at hidding from the missionaries :) but all in all the week went pretty well. 

 

Ok, so this week was the famous "Semana Santa" which is the traditon of the catholics to celebrate Easter but they celebrate it the whole week. So one thing they do is make this soup that has every sort of bean in it like kidney bean, lima beans and all the other ones that I dont know the names of. And it usually has fish too which is scary because they don't take all the spines out so you have to eat it very carefully. Well anyways everybody makes that soup and they eat it pretty much all week! So I ate it all week too and it wasnt my favorite but oh well it was an interesting experience. Also on Friday before Easter they all march in the streets representing the time when Christ marched with his cross. I have a picture I will send it to you guys.

Then something funny was that we were with our baptism date at his house and he was watching a movie about Christ that was on so we sat down and were talking to him and watching a little too and it was obviously a Catholic version of the movie cause at the part of the baptism of Christ, it shows Jesus go to John the Baptist to get baptized and he just kneels down in the shallow part of the water and John sprinkles a little water on his head to baptize him... haha so our baptism date was eating a little soup while this was happening and his wife was watching and she says "hey look how Jesus was baptized!" and my companion goes "oh no just keep eating your soup don't worry about it" haha I laughed so hard afterwards.

 However, the sad thing is that our investigator yet again didn't go through with his baptism and we are thinking about letting him go because he keeps saying yes yes yes and then the day of his baptism he comes up with something that he has to do... so ya I'm a little sad about that :( 

But other than that all is well and I had a great week!

 

                The march in the streets to represent Christ when he carried his cross

 

 

Love, Elder Lignell

 

Week Twenty One In Ecuador - Monday, April 14, 2014 - Finally Have Mastered Spanish :)

Hi Mom :) and Family!

I am doing well! 

Ok so first off yes Kathy's present was great!! I've loved it and the eggs are good too....I have been eating them and they taste the same as the real things! :)

I haven't received any of your letters yet or anything from D.D. recently :( 

Thank you for the five little tips I really enjoyed them!

And okay now about this week........

So first off, we didn't have the baptism of Investigator J this week either... :( he has been having a bunch of problems; The first week was because he got a stomach virus and was in the hospital and then this last weekend he had to travel to another city because a family member passed away. So we are still hoping that he can be baptized this upcoming Saturday but we will see how everything goes. 

Other than that I just wanted to share a few funny things about out here. First, I was thinking about how part of the word of wisdom talks about how we can't have tea and the funny thing is that we literally drink hot drinks almost every day down here because we have to boil our water! haha 

And it is so terrible when it is 100 degrees outside and we are drinking a hot drink too... haha but it makes me laugh.

Also this week I had the interesting experience of eating a cow elbow or some sort of cow joint and what it is, is just a bone that is surrounded in like 2 inches of pure fat... nothing else and you just eat the fat off and the people here enjoy it... It was probably one of my least favorite treats here so far haha. Other than that, we've been having sort of a hard time here in our sector in finding new people. We just pass by the same people everyday out here and it is too bad cause we just slowly keep losing more and more people.

But I have faith that we can find new people to teach and I have been studying in Preach My Gospel everyday to find out how to do stuff better out here :) that book really is amazing! Have Jake start reading it if he has time :)

Also I don't want to brag but I feel fluent in Spanish now!  I still miss a few words here and there but I can pretty much understand everything when I am reading in the Book of Mormon and when people talk. I can also say just about anything that I want to! I never thought this day would come when I first got here 6 months ago, but I really feel very comfortable with this language!

Love,

Elder Lignell
                                       Another 6-Month Missionary Like Me :)

 

Having a Little Fun At Conference

 

 

Week Twenty In Ecuador - Monday, April 7, 2014 - Yes, we had to evacuate for the Tsunami.

Hey guys :)

 

So first yes, we did have to evacuate for the tsunami!! But I will talk more about that in a sec.

 

And yes, conference was great. I enjoyed it a lot and yes it was all in Spanish :)

 

I'm glad everyone is doing well and yes I got the package from Kathy with the eggs and candy and stuff and I love it! Thank her so much for me!

 

And yes,we take our laundry to a Laundromat right now that a member owns and it is great. She folds it all up nice for us after too :)

 

Okay now about the week!!

 

So first it was pretty crazy because last Monday we had an announcement in the mission that we all had to put together 72 hour kits with food and clothes so of course, with everyone being missionaries we were all freaked out about revelation and stuff.  But then Tuesday night at like 10:00 p.m. we got a call saying we had to get our 72 hour kits ready and all the missionaries in Guayaquil had to go to houses that were three stories up or higher! So, since we live on the third flour we didn't have to leave but we had ten missionaries come to here to sleep. And guess what!? One of them was Elder Myers!....my friend from the MTC. He came and slept over and I was so happy because we just got to talk and I relate to him a bunch so it was awesome! I just got to sit and talk to him and we ended up talking until like 3:30 in the morning and like usual woke up at 6:30 so I only got 3 hours of sleep that night... haha but it was worth it. And the tsunami obviously didnt hit :) so everyone is fine but the President of the mission definitely did have a crazy revelation because he told us to put together those kits before the earthquake in Chili.... 

 

Ok now about confrence! its was great we brought 9 investigators in all to confrence and I enjoyed it a lot. There is actually an odd rule in this mission that if you dont bring investigators to the session you cant watch it... but luckily we got at least one person to each session and I was able to watch it all. Although I didnt understand all of it cause it was in spanish I was able to pick up all the simple messages and I enjoyed just listening to the choir haha

 

Then yesterday we had the two baptisms that I told you about last week... and they actually both fell through. The wife had a hard time with the Word of Wisdom and then yesterday we couldn't find the husband anywhere..... he honestly just disappeared so that was pretty tough... I was super disappointed and my companion had a hard time and he is still kinda having a hard time. 

 

So I was feeling kinda down too... but then this morning in my personal study I was reading about the Sons of Mosiah and I wanted to quickly share the story with you. Okay so first the Sons of Mosiah were terrible people "the vilest of sinners" but they were given the chance to repent and they took the chance and through that they had a wonderful knowledge of the atonement of Christ. Then they had the desire to share the gospel with others. (Mosiah 28:3) They went out to preach and brought 1000 souls unto repentence. (Alma 26:22) But it wasn't all easy for them and in (Alma 26:27) it says that at one point they wanted to go back but the Lord spoke peace unto them and told them to endure their afflictions and they would have success. Then in (Alma 26:30) it says that they did suffer all manner of afflictions to do the will of the Lord and to help others to find the light that they had. And finally in (Alma 26:31) it says that they did have success and that they suffered those afflictions but pushed forward and endured and they were blessed with 1000's of converts!! And I love that story and I know that I can do the same and I realize that I have to endure a bunch of sadness and afflictions out here but it isn't all in vain and I will be blessed if I endure my trials well and always remember the sacrifice that Jesus made for me :)

Tell Dad and Jake and Grandpa and Kathy and DD and Bob and Grandma and everyone that I love them :) haha chao

Love,

Elder Lignell