Week Forty in Ecuador - August 25, 2014 - We Hosted Activity Night!!! - Pretty Crazy !!!

Alright guys I'm back again:) and this week went well I actually really enjoyed it. And I am way excited to keep working.

So first off me and Elder Carmona are doing well and we have been searching all over Malvinas and unfortunately we haven't been able to find too many really solid people but I haven't lost faith and we'll keep finding people.

 

However, right now I want a lot of our focus to be on the people who were recently baptized because I want to be able to help them so that none of them go inactive or fall away from the church. Also we are hoping to be able to work more with the ward and be able to find referrals through them. And in trying to do that we set up a ward missionary night at the chapel this last Friday and the purpose was that the members could bring friends there and then we were going to have some messages and then play some "constructive" games... well to say the least it didn't go as we expected. 

 

First off hardly anyone brought investigators to the activity, but then we started and I gave a talk about missionary work and then we started playing the games we played one called "Noah's ark" that me and Elder Sanchez had made up before in a family home evening where everyone gets a paper with a different animals name and there are two of every animal then without talking you have to go find your animal partner by making sounds and movements and then make it to the Ark... well we started it and everyone just started screaming the names of animals out trying to make it to the ark first to get the prizes... then we had to try to calm everyone down so we started to a "unity game" where there were four teams and they had to all work together to form a circle. However it honestly just made everyone there more competitive and made things go way out of control! The high priest leader and the seminary teacher were honestly screaming right at me telling me to give them their prizes because they had won... so all in all it wasn't very productive but it gave us all a good laugh and now I know a few things not to do in wards in the future hahaha

Then on Saturday it was the baptism of Investigator L. she is a 15 year old girl that is way cool she learned so fast all that she needed too and was able to be baptize3d, I was chosen to do the ordinance and I was really happy for that opportunity, her little sister has her baptism this upcoming Saturday :) So ya they are both great! The girl who just got baptized was the one that we found threw her mom when at first we invited her mom to read the Book of Mormon and left it with her then the next day we passed by and the daughter had read the part we left and started asking questions about it and then from then on she progressed perfectly right up to her baptism so it has been a pretty cool little miracle to be have been able to teach her :)

And so I am doing well! I love it here and the nights aren't as crazy hot right now... I don't even have to sleep with the fan on high speed I put it on low now ;) haha well I love Ecuador!  Entonces voy a terminar este mensaje pero espero que todo este bien y que puedan siempre disfrutar de este evangelio Les Quiero mucho!

 

Elder Lignell

Week Thirty Nine in Ecuador - August 18, 2014 - I Love Missionary Work!

Hey Family :)

 So this week has been great! But I'm glad you all are having a ball in Cali...the other day were were hitting ping pong balls back in forth in the house with rackets and it made me think of paddle ball on the beach, haha and then I remembered how much I'd bug Jake to play with me and how I'm the best :) haha Anyways, I hope all is going well. 

Well this week was great but to be completely honest not too much happened. Like we haven't found anybody new to work with and it just seemed like a slow week however Saturday was super awesome because we had four baptisms!!! And that was way cool those who got baptized are so awesome they all love coming to church and we've been working hard to get them all to have friends from the church so that they stick with it and don't go inactive. Then this next Saturday we have two more baptisms which are two sisters named Investigator L. and N they are sweet and we're so blessed to have been able to meet them and teach them.

Well, sorry not too much has happened new, but I'm feeling good and we're going hard out here in Malvinas. I love missionary work, it honestly just makes you happy even though sometimes it's hard and exhausting and makes you wanna give up you seem to always find a little bit more strength to carry on and then find all the miracles that God has in store for you, like a quote that I like that says, "Man's extremity is God's opportunity"

 Well love you all to death!

Elder Lignell                    Our Sweet Family of Baptisms :)

 

Week Thirty Eight in Ecuador - August 11, 2014 - We Are Finding So Many People Who Want To Learn About The Gospel!

Hey Family :) Well I read the letter from Mallory and that is so crazy... I still can't believe that she is already coming home from her mission in the Philippines. Time really does fly! I can't believe that I have 10 months here either. I feel like I haven't even had time to do anything really special yet (haha) but I also feel like this is the only way of living that I have ever known. 

Anyway, I had a very nice week this week! We had two baptisms!!! It was awesome but I'll talk about that a little bit later on. 

Okay so this week I have been thinking a lot about the people we have been teaching and the ways that the Church can help them in their lives. Like its obvious that the Church of Jesus Christ will help everyone, however, every person is their own self and they have different needs. I have been trying to put myself in their shoes and see what type of help the Church can bring them right now in their lives. For instance we had our baptism last Saturday... Investigator G. He is 12 and he's a super happy kid but the part of the city where he lives is very dangerous with a lot of ghettos so he can't hang around with kids outside of his house because they are all smoking and drinking.  He loves the Church for the atmosphere that he can fiind there and he loves going to activities, I truly feel like he will stay in the Church and be able to gain a very stong testimony of the Church.

 

The feeling you get as a missionary when you find someone that can just fall in love with going to church and learning about Christ is something that is truly hard to express. And it's what pushes me to keep finding others to teach and to help :) We have been so blessed here in Malvinas to be able to be baptizing every week!  I am so happy and grateful for that and I feel like my duty right now with these people that God has placed in front of us is to truly convert them, to find the key from the Church that will help them to stay in this religion for the rest of their lives. 

We had the two baptisms on Saturday and it was awesome! They are two brothers, one is Investigator A. and the other is Investigator D. One is 15 and the other is 8 and they are so awesome! They love listening to us, reading the Book of Mormon and we are so excited to go to their baptism!  We were blessed to have them accompanied by their parents who are super sweet! I hope to be able to work with them later on too :)

 

Now the funny part is is that we have been teaching pretty much their entire street.... like all of their friends and family that live by them have been listening to our lessons so every time we go to teach them, they all bring out chairs and sit around us to listen so we teach about ten people at a time every time we go over there and they all go to church together as a group! They are all so wonderful and if everything goes right this Saturday we will have the privilege to baptize 4 of them :) 

Okay and now I wanted to share another interesting miracle that happened this last week. So I was in an interchange with another missionary and his name is Elder Vasquez and so we were walking around before lunch and we were talking to everybody in the streets and we came across an older man who was sitting outside in a chair and so I went up and said hello and right as I was saying hello there were about three older ladies inside the house that started yelling, "Hey come in come in" which at first caught me super off gaurd and I didn't know what to do. Then they said, "Hey come sit down for a bit in here and talk to my Dad (the older man outside) so I figured nothing could hurt by just going and and talking to them, so we went in and started a conversation. Well, it turns out that over like 30 years ago the missionaries had talked to them and they remembered them that's why they called us in. So we started talking about the things that they taught them and  they have never gone to church and only talked to the missionaries one time. We then invited them to church and also to be baptized and they accepted both of the invitations! They will be coming to church this next Sunday and are preparing to be baptized on the 13th of September! They then invited us to eat lunch and asked us to come back to teach them more and eat lucnh again this Tuesday... I honestly know that God prepares people for us and he just expects us to go out of our way to say hello and then he does the rest :) They are a wonderful family they have started reading the Book of Mormon and praying everynight :) 

So we have been pretty blessed out here!!! I know this Church is true and I love this work!

 I love you all to death!

Elder Lignell            Our Recent Two Baptisms....They Are Two Brothers

 

 

                 Even Though They Don't Smile Big In Ecuador, I'm Sure They Were Happy!

 

 

Week Thirty Seven in Ecuador - August 4, 2014 - I Love This Work! I Love The Gospel, I Love The Scriptures and I Love You Guys

Hey family! 

Alright well first off thank you so very much for sending out the package. Hopefully it will get here soon. I'm glad everyone is doing well. That's awesome. I am doing good out here but there have been some changes! So my old companion, Elder Garcia, had transfers so he left and now I I have a new companion named Elder Carmona. He was born in the Dominican Republic but he moved to the United States when he was 6 years old so he speaks perfect English! Haha...You don't know how nice it has been to be able to speak a little bit of English! Well anyways he is cool and he actually lives by Rose Park in Salt Lake City! He has 10 months out here in the mission, so just a little bit more time than I do. 

So I have been teaching him the area and the investigators and everything about Malvinas this last week. And it's going well! We have kept up the number of people that are investigating the Church. We brought 7 to church and 6 again had baptism dates this past Saturday and we had one baptism and for this next Saturday and then we have three more :) 

So I'm feeling pretty good about the work that we our doing and especially that the investigators that we have are progressing and want to keep coming to church!

Ok, so the baptism that we just had was a 12 year old kid named Investigator G. Sometimes a 12 year old kid has a hard time when it comes to going to church and staying strong after the baptism and after we leave, but with this kid,  I'm nt too worried. He is the greatest kid!!  Every time we pass by his house he gets the biggest smile on his face and literally jumps to the door. Then on Saturday for his baptism right before the service started, we went to go take some pictures and I look over at him and he was all teary eyed, and I had no idea what to think.... I couldn't tell if he was scared or didn't want to be baptized or just really excited... nobody really knew why he was crying. Well anyways we tried to comfort him and he sorta calmed down then we had the service. I had the oppertunity to baptize him and right after he came out of the water we asked him how he felt and he said, "El agua era rico" which means something like the water was delicious. hahaha I was so happy I had the chance to baptize him!! He's a wonderful kid and we're hoping to be able to help his mom and his other brother recieve the same ordinances later on :)

Well I am doing well and Malvinas is great! I can't wait until this next Saturday too and the next and the next :)

Well I love this work, I love the gospel, I love the scriptures, and I love you guys. I think about you all the time but not in a sad way because I only get one shot at these two years and I promise I'm trying to give it my all each day.

 

Well love you all

Elder Lignell          Investigator G. on his baptism day!! He is a great kid!!!