Week Seventy Five in Ecuador - April 27, 2015 - Doing Just Great and Enjoying It All

Hi Family,

 

Anyways,  I'm glad everyone is doing well. This week has been interesting! We have found a few more people that are really great. One of them is named V. He is 85 years old and he is hilarious, he always said hi to us when we passed down his street and finally this last week we contacted him and invited him to go to church. Well he went this last Sunday and he is preparing for a baptism. But the best part is that everyday when we pass by his house to teach him, we strengthened his testimony just a little bit more. The first day we explained the gospel of Jesus Christ and he accepted his baptism date but also had a lot of excuses why he shouldn't go through with it. The next day he was worried about what his wife would think but at the end said he would just follow God and then the last lesson we had with him, we taught the restoration of the gospel and at the end of the lesson he just said,  "I accept your message to be true!" It was awesome! He is so great and I am so excited for his baptism.

 

Other than that my week has been great! We celebrated a few of the members birthdays as you saw in the pictures and we helped two people get baptized for the other elders. The two kids have a dad who is a member but he is in-active and his kids have gone to church a bunch but he didn't want them to get baptized. So on Thursday night I went with my companion and we had a super spiritual lesson about the importance of baptism. You could see the Spirit touching the heart of this and he then accepted to let his children get baptized. I was stoked!  

So anyways I had a great week. Thank you for the skype account and of course I have not forgotten I am way excited and I will make sure that I can see you guys this time!!

 

Love to you all,

 

Elder Lignell                                         Lots of Birthday Celebrations!

                                                A Sweet Family That Feeds Me A lot!

                                            Enjoying My Own Cooking!!!

                                             Just Clowning Around with My Companion :)

                                    Making Appointments With Investigators.

                   My Companion is Great...We Work Hard, But Have  A Lot of Fun!!

                                    More Birthday Celebrations With Ward Members

 

 

Oh and mom I feel so terrible. I forgot to wish you happy birthday.... for real I feel bad, but I guess I'll wish you happy birthday now! I love you so much... you are the greatest mom in the whole world. For real and you have helped me so much throughout my life, I definitely would not be who I am today if it wasnt for you. Love ya

 

Elder Lignell

Week Seventy Four in Ecuador - April 20, 2015 - Learned How To Cook Empanadas :)

Hi Family,

 

Well fortunately I made it through another week in the mission hahaha :) actually this week has been great we worked sooo hard, and it was a ton of fun!!! We found some really cool people!! The zone has completely turned around and we have been starting to have a lot of success. I'm definitely excited cause that means that we'll start to baptize again soon! :)  

Anyways that's great about Jake Mortimer and that he had a wonderful experience as a missionary. I agree with him it is the best descion you can make in your life.  

I'm glad that everyone is doing well! I can't believe its spring, time is flying by... 

And mom I'm doing fine,  it is a lot of stress right now and I have a ton of responsibilities but God is helping me and I'm figuring it out little by little. I feel great and I'm excited to keep working.  

This week we had a few of our investigators come to church and one of them we had to go into his room and shake his bed and throw pillows at him and finely he got up, (he didn't mind :)) but it was great because after church ended he said he was glad that he went and that we had bothered him enough so that he would go. hahaha 

Other than that on Sunday after church I cooked empanadas at the matute families house (the lady who wrote you) and my companion made juice... it was fun and now I know how to make empanadas!! I'll have to cook you guys some when I get back! 

Now on the spiritual side, this week I have been noticing a lot that for me in my personal life God has acted in a lot of little tiny ways. They aren't things that are so noticable at every moment but when I look a little bit deeper I find all of the wonderful blessings that God gives me daily. In my patriarchal blessing it says "through diligent prayer I will see that God answers me and is in my life in the small aspects" and this week I really have been noticing it. A lot of times as humans we look for big answers big facts and big events to establish our beliefs and knowledge. I feel like our ability to find God, relates directly with our ability to see the little miracles in our lives, and search for him in every aspect of our lives. Because he's always there :)

 Love you all, 

Elder Lignell

Week Seventy Three in Ecuador - April 13, 2015 - Crazy Rains In Ecuador!

Alright guys well I'm here, and this week has had quite a few things
happen. But first off I'm really glad that you all had a wonderful
time in Mexico and I'm sorry I was not able to accompany you to help
speak Spanish haha :) That's crazy about the returned missionary! It
shows that you've gotta really make an effort to stay active after
your mission as well, because if you're not careful you might end up
like him.

First off  I have a new companion from Colombia his name is Elder Murillo. But the
crazy thing is that it is his first time being zone leader so I am
now senior zone leader and I'm training him as a zone leader. So now
all the pressure of the zone is on my shoulders! However this week
we worked super hard and it was a ton of fun. I am really excited for
the chance that I have to be companions with him.

Also this week we had a baptism!!! It was super unexpected because this kid never wanted to get baptized he has been going to church for the last 2 years and he knows all of the missionaries that have been  here, so it was a miracle that we were able to help him make the decision at the last minute! It was just perfect, however this week I also got way sick on Thursday and had a fever of almost 103 degrees but the weird thing was, that the fever was the only real symptom that
I had. I felt normal, but I was just burning up so for part of the week the mission president made me stay in bed all day... but don't worry now I'm feeling a lot better.

So anyways it was a weird crazy week, I have a ton of pressure right now but I feel like I'm handling it somewhat well. I like my new companion a lot, and it is a ton of fun training him, and wow God
trully does bless us for being diligent. :)

Hope you all are doing great!

Love,

Elder Lignell

                  And You Thought The Rain During Conference Was Bad There!

                      Our recent convert....we all got soaking wet with the crazy rains!

               The kids in my ward who love to come with me on my visits.

                                             A kid who I think looks like Mitch Hess :)

                                               A ward member

Our recent baptism!

Week Seventy Two in Ecuador - April 1, 2015 - A Sister Reaching Out To You From Ecuador About Elder Lignell

Well that is awesome that you got the email from Hermana Matute... haha she is great. And I have a good story this week about them that I'll tell you in just a sec.

So first off, I'm sooo jealous about everyone going to Puerto Vallarta. Hope you all have a blast, you'll have to send me a bunch of pictures.

Alright so now about my week.

It was actually pretty crazy this week because in all of Ecuador it is raining, but raining a lot. It's like mini floods that pass by. So anyways on Thursday we were teaching an investigator with the son of the lady that wrote you. (named moroni) and we hear rain outside. Well we finished the lesson and went to leave and to be honest, you could hardly see in front of you the rain was so thick. So together with Moroni we ran back to his house to get out of the rain, and getting to their house we noticce that their whole family is in a panic running in and out of their house with buckets full of water. What had happened is that behind their house they have a smal little patio but it doesn't have a drain pipe; it's just cement and their rain gutter. So the back of their house broke because of all the water so their back patio was completely filled with water and it was starting to get into the house. 

So like any missionary would we jumped right in to start taking buckets out of water attempting to save their house from the rainstorm. To be honest we worked for about an hour and a half taking buckets out filled with water until we finally had the brilliant idea to pray. We then kneeled down in about three inches of water in their house and said a small simple prayer asking for the rain to stop if that was God's will. During the prayer I felt the strong impression that the rain would stop but only if I kept working and didn't give up. So for about 30 min. more being completely exhausted, we kept taking out buckets and guess what. The prayer got answered. The rain stopped, the house didn't have any true damage and my testimony grew just a little bit stronger. :) It was amazing to see the power of prayer and just how much God truly listens to us. After all was said and done I had a thought come into my mind of Ether 3:1. It talks about how much the Brother of Jared had to do to get his prayer answered. And shows us that if we ask with faith and we are diligent in working for that prayer to be answered, God will fulfill our wishes. 

Other than that the week was great; the conference was awesome, they talked a lot about marrige... maybe it's a sign that I'll get married soon.... hahaha... no I'm definitely still a little kid. ;)

Love you all to death,

Elder Lignell







Hi  my dear  friend Elizabeth.  I am from Guayaquil- Ecuador.  I am a member  of  the Church  26  years ago. I have 6  children. My  older son   was a  missioanry  in our  country Mission QUITO ECUADOR   2009-2011, My second  son is  a  missionary.  He is  serving in Mission Chihuahua  Chihuahua México.    He  has 18 months in his  mission.  my  3th son   will serve in his  mission in 2   1/2  months  .  My other son is 5 and my daughter is 13.  MY HUSBAND  IS A  FIREMAN.

 Your son is in my  ward.   He is our  Zone Leader  here. He is a excellent  missionary!!!!!.   I  MEAN I SENT AN INVITATION  TO  YOUR SON JACOB  IN FACEBOOK.  WELL  SISTER  

I  LOVE  TO YOUR SON A  LOT !!!!!  

NICE TO MEET  YOU  SISTER

WITH LOVE

BELLA

SORRY    POR  MI INGLES  :)

                                                  Looking official in our suits!

                                                What a group :)

                                    Hey....we are growing boys !!!! We eat a lot!!