Week Forty Nine in Ecuador - October 27, 2014 - Lots of Pictures For You This Week

Hey Family,

Jacob looked good for MORP.... hope he had an awesome time! And of course a good night kiss... haha just kidding he's too young :)

About being stressed out. Ya know what... truthfully yes I do stress out a lot and I feel like it is one of my weeknesses recently in the last few months I have been trying really hard not to stress out and to just stay calm and let things pass as they do. However I definitely don't always succeed. 

But this week was awesome!! And guess what all of your prayers for the man that you don't know worked! He got baptized! So I'll tell you the story. 

So all week I had been praying my heart out that Investigator R. could be baptized and that he would have the strength to be able to overcome his addictions and recieve a remision of his sins. Every single day we passed by his house to check up on him and see how he was doing and on Thursday, two days before his baptism he told us a story about how he had bought a cigarette and was going to give up on trying to quit smoking. However as he lit up the cigarette, the butt end fell off right as he lit it up and he was so frustrated, he threw the cigarette away and didn't smoke! He took that as a sign that God wanted him to go through with his baptism and he pushed through and Saturday at 7:00 he was able to be baptized! After his baptism he told us that he felt clean and that he felt like he was a new person. You don't even know how happy it made me to be able to see him take that step in his life. He obviously still has a long way to go to continue putting away this vice in his life but wow, God truly does answer our prayers and he trully does fight against the devil to help us to succeed. I was so very grateful and it strengthened my testimony a ton on the power of prayer. 

 Other than that I am great. My companion is a stud! He's hillarious. And we cook food all the time in our house. We make egg and hot dog sandwiches, colombian bread and this week we're gonna do french toast. Haha we also the other night played soccer in our house and not to brag but I beat a Colombian, Peruvian and a Chilean... hahaha 

So this week was awesome we are working hard and I love the area that I am in right now! 

 I love you all to death!

 Elder Lignell

                                               Investigator R.'s Baptism

                                                   Investigator R's Baptism

                                             Investigator L's Baptism - she is 76

                           Investigator D's Baptism - She is 74, loves to read
                                            is so sweet and loves to go to church.

                                                         Group Picture :)

                                          Me with a fake rattail :) Look Close :)

                                              Eating Crab......Yum!!

                Crazy Dangerous Houses Built Above The River Out of Wood

                     Me and My New Companion....We Are Cooking Up a Storm!

 

 

Week Forty Eight in Ecuador - October 20, 2014 - 75 Year Old....So Ready to Hear The Gospel

Hey guys,

Well another week down and my week was interesting. It wasn't the best week of all time but definitely not the worst either. 

So first off we had a baptism!!!! Hey her name is Investigator D. and she is 75 years old and it was honestly the biggest miracle to be able to find her. I'll tell you a little about how it all happened. So one day as we were walking my companion points out a lady sitting in front of her house and he says, "one day we have to go pass by her because she would always say hi to me and my last companion." Then the next day as we were passing by again I thought, hey why not.... so we passed by and talked to her. In the first contact we invited her to go to church be baptized and gave her a Book of Mormon... and she accepted everything without a doubt. Then the next day we passed by to talk to her and she had read the first 10 chapters out of the Book of Mormon! And was still excited for her baptism. Well to make a long story short she went to church her three times and recently was baptized this last Saturday then on Sunday for her confirmation she came to church an hour early by herself and was patiently waiting for the meeting to start. She honestly is just a testimony that there truly are people just chosen and ready to be baptized and accept the Church. Wow... it was an amazing experience being able to get to know her.

And now this next upcoming week we can possibly have another baptism as well and his name is Investigator R. and he is 40 years old. He is super super excited to get baptized but his challenge is that he has been smoking and drinking coffee since he was a little kid. So he'll have to give it up for good. I would love it if all of you could help pray for this investigator to get baptized this week... it would mean a lot! :) 

And last, I now have a new companion. His name is Elder Cardona and he is from Bogota Colombia! I just barely got back from the bus station dropping off Elder Muñoz. So ya I'm excited to work with my new companion! 

Other than that I am doing well and I'm happy. I hope everything is going well for you guys! Well I love you all to death.  I'm so sorry, but this computer will not let me send pictures.  Hopefully I'll be able to send them next week.

Elder Lignell

Week Forty Seven In Ecuador - October 13, 2014 - Crazy Power Outage, But Neat Experience

Dear Family and Friends,

 This week has been good;  we worked super hard and we saw a ton of the fruits of our efforts :)

We started out the week sorta slow and we didn't find very many knew people or get any progress done but then we just started getting blessed with more and more people that accepted the challenges and are now moving along!

 

And to top it all off we had a baptism this week! The investigator that had her date set for conference weekend and she got back from her trip and was able to get baptized!! Her name is Investigator L. and she is 74 and I had the wonderful opportunity to baptize her :) I'll send pictures next week as this computer won't let me attach them.

 

Then yesterday after church we had an interesting experience...so we were walking down the streets at about 7:30 p.m. at night and we see a giant flash light up the whole sky! Then all the lights go out in the whole part of the Guasmo Sur so everything goes black! And here it is extremely dangerous to be out in the streets during a power outage because all the robbers take advantage of that time to rob. (also we were in the most dangerous part of our sector.) SO we immediately looked for the closest members house and jumped inside The family is Family R. and they were nice enough to let us hang out there, but the best part of all was that while we were there we sang hymns with them, I honestly felt the spirit so strong and I strengthened my testimony a bunch in being able to appreciate the little things, like being able to sit with a small family in their house and sing hymns with them during a power outage and I could feel the presence of the Holy Ghost. You could see everybody's faces just beaming in the candle light... it was sweet! Then the lights came back and we were able to leave safely.

And now lastly, well as you know I have completed a year as a missionary!!! I honestly can't believe it and to think about the progress I have had as a person in this last year is absolutely unreal!  To be completely honest, it has been the best year of my life.  I have seen so many blessings and miracles that I had never even thought were possible. I've seen people completely change their lives and truly find I can hardly believe it... I am so grateful to be out here and to be able to be a missionary and be part of this work.  I'm so grateful for all the love and support from every single one of my family and friends.  I love this work and I am really appreciative that I have one year more to be able to give all my time as a missionary and hopefully continue to grow and progress as a disciple of Christ. I know this church is true and I know God loves us and I know he takes a part in all of our lives. I know that he is calling us at all times we just have to be the ones to reach out our hands and grasp his.  I wish you all the best and pray for you every single night.

 Love you all to death!!!

Love, Elder Lignell

Week Forty Six in Ecuador - October 6, 2014 - Almost My Year Anniversary :)

Hey guys so I just got on the computer and I had a great week. 

So as you know, this last week was conference weekend and the rule that we have in this missions is that if you don't bring investigators to conference you can't go to watch the session. But amazingly I was able to bring investigators to every session! :) And I had a pretty cool experience.... so this whole last week I was praying about conference and that we would be able to find someoneto bring to the sessions so that I would be able to watch them. Anyway so right before presithood session starts our investigator that we had left so we were sad! We then went to a member's house and told them about that so the mom somehow understanding what we needed went to the other room and told her non-member son to go to the conference with us... and he did!!! It was awesome and I thought that the priesthood session was one of the best ones I've ever seen haha maybe just because I actually paid attention haha but really it was good!! 

 I'm also now senior companion!!!!  I'm very glad at this new situation. 

Ok and now about my week.... so we worked super hard this week and we invited the whole Guasmo Sur to go to conference haha!! I swear as a missionary the conference weekends are the most stressful things of all time!! The stake center where the conference was being broadcasted is 30 minutes by bus from our sector and we had to gather everyone up to get them in the bus and then take them there and when there is only two hours in between every session it is super hard to find everyone and get them in a bus thirty minutes before the session, five times in a row haha so I'm exhausted...... but it was worth it!

 

We brought in 10 different people and some of them went to more than one session :) We have two baptism dates that are awesome and are progressing very well and the conference was so good!!!  I loved that they talked a lot about our desire to stay on the path of God and be able to follow his doctrine. Honestly, I felt the Spirit so strong in this conference and I know that the Prophet and his Apostles and all of the 70's are called of God and chosen to instruct us in this life :)

 And I'm stoked to start working again this week.  I love this gospel and I love being a missionary, so I have to make the best of this next year that I have ;)  I love you all!

 

Elder Lignell