Tuesday, September 2, 2014

Week Forty One in Ecuador - September 1, 2014 - Some Great Experiences!


Hey family,
 
Well this week has been good. I wish Jake a very Happy Birthday....I hope it was all that he wanted, and lucky him, gets to go to church on his birthday.... what greater blessing could you even ask for :) haha and ya, I just saw the pic of you guys up at the falls in Bell's Canyon, that's sweet.  I hope Mom didn't complain too much because we all know she doesn't like to hike  hahahahaha. Oh and a big congratz on Jake for being ordained as a Priest! Thats sweet, and yes I have had to bless the sacrament here but tell Jake to not even worry about it, it's easy. You have the little cheat card and just have him talk slow and clearly and he'll be fine. 

And now to answer your questions I am studying right now in Alma however something that I have found that is really really cool is to start the Book of Mormon from the begining and the just read super super slow and try to understand the meaning of every word. I look at every scripture link that it has at the bottom of the page to see how other scriputures relate and then I take notes in the margins about what I learned... so it takes forever but it helps you understand the scriptures so much better and it's awesome. 

After 4 months, I finally got my debit card! To celebrate, we went to a mall that is close by and I bought some cool shampoo some pomade hair stuff and some batteries for my camera, then we went and ate at a KFC so that I was sweet I felt like I was back in the US for a second. haha

Alright, now about this week. Well to be completly honest this week was hard, it was hard to stay super animated to work and we've been having diffuculties finding people to teach. The baptism that we had for last Saturday fell through. She decided that she wants more time and also that she couldn't come to church on Sunday... so we'll see how it goes with her in the future. Anyway it's been sorta frustrating but we did have some cool miracles that happened so I'll talk about those instead :)
 
So first off we had a member that helped us do visits this last Thursday and he is an awesome member! He is a convert of 8 years and he absolutely loves the Church and he wants the best for this ward so he is always ready to help us and to visit the less active members. Well so we went out to do visits with him and after we had talked to a few people, he just sorta stopped in the street and started talking to us about his family and about some of the problems that have been going on in his life. He shared his testimony about the Gospel and why he loves it so much and truly just how much he cares about his family. With tears in his eyes he explained to us how much it meant to him that we are here as missionaries working. I honestly felt the Spirit so strong in that moment and as I tried to respond. I just felt a crazy strong burning inside and a happiness and love for him like he was one of my family members. I tried my best to explain my testimony to him and reassure him that we would help him with his family and the ward. I don't know how much my words were able to help him but all I know is that the Spirit in the middle of the street in Malvinas at 8:00 at night was so strong that it would have been impossible to have not felt it! And it trully strengthened my testimony so much to be able to see a member that really really cares about this Gospel and for the welfare of his family. 

Then the last story is just a little bit funnier. So we have a bunch of investigators that are friends of our recent converts and they are pretty much are all of their neighbors. Well anyway it was Sunday in the morning and we went over to that neigborhood to wake them all up because church starts at 9:00 a.m. and as we turn the corner at about 8:00 a.m. in the morning the three kids who aren't members were all walking towards us and they were frustrated and yelled at us "Where have you guys been we've been ready for like thirty minutes now" so they got ready for church before us, without us, without us even having to wake them up!
 
Then we found our other investigator who is 24 and works as a security guard. Well he had to work the night shift on Saturday so he got back from work at 8:00  in the morning on Sunday.  When we went to talk to him I asked him if he would be able to make it to church and he said, "Yes of course. I promised you guys I would,  just let me shower quick and I'll be right out" hahaha it was sweet and it was awesome to see how God really does work with us to help our investigators understand the importance of the things we teach them!

So,  the week went well and I am feeling good and I hope you enjoyed my stories.

 I love you all!

 Love,
Elder Lignell
                                          Pictures From Our Baptism Last Saturday
                                

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