Week Seventy Nine in Ecuador - May 25, 2015 - A New Companion From Peru

Hey family! Well this week was great :) Just so you know I had changes of my companions again. My new companion is named Elder Narro and he is from Peru, Chimbote. He's great! It's been fun getting to know him and I feel like working with him is gonna be great. He has been a zone leader before so he knows what's going on and it means I don't have to teach him too much and he helps me out a lot with all of our responsibilities. He is 27 years old which is cool. He was a convert to the church when he was 23 and left on his mission when he had just passed his 25th birthday! Cool story huh! But he's a great missionary, but I do feel a little bit young next to him... hahaha 

I'm glad everyone is doing well and thanks for keeping me updated on all the stuff that's going on, I enjoy hearing about it.

Now about my week. This week was great, we worked super hard. Sometimes I feel like all this mission focuses on is working. And it's probably a principle that I needed to learn for my life. To be able to work hard and focus on my work and love it. We connected with so many people and invited them all to come unto Christ, and ya know what. We were blessed. We found an investigator named D that is super excited to get baptized and went to church yesterday.  And we found two young men that have family members who are baptized and want their kids to get baptized! It was sweet to be able to find those small little blessings that God gave us for being diligent in our work. 

 I'm doing great, I'm happy. I'm trying not to think too much about home, and focus on what I have left to do here. I hope you all are doing well and I wish you the best in all that you're doing. 

 

Love,

                                                            Recent Baptism

Elder Lignell

Week Seventy Eight in Ecuador - May 18, 2015 - One Of My Most Successful Days As A Missionary!

Hey family, well I'm glad everyone is doing well. Glad you're all busy and happy :) 

I wrote Cameron mom. Tell Kristen that's sweet he's gonna go on a mission! I'm proud of him.

Tell Jake he's a stud :) I'm glad he enjoyed my testimony. Don't worry about the eagle scout, just take a video and send me lots of  pictures :)

Thanks for aplying to BYU! I hoe they accept me!! hahah I'll pray this week that they do :)

And lastly about my package if you haven't already sent it. put some fizzy drinks in. I ran out again.

Alright now about my week. Alright so it has been absolutely crazy! So much stuff happened this week. First off I told you that we had nobody come to church the week before... well, we got super excited to go out and work on Tuesday and I had one of my most successful days as a missionary!! We put 3 new baptism dates, contacted 11 references and rescued 2 baptisms for the zone to get baptized that Saturday. And it was awesome!! I felt the spirit so strong, in just being able to forget overselves and work hard. I felt like God was putting people in our path because he saw our diligence that day. And I believe that there is a principle that every missionary should know. That God trusts in us to convert his children. If we are not worthy or not obedient, he won't trust us to convert very many of his children and they won't be placed in our path. But if we are obedient and diligent in our work, God will trust us and we will have the wonderful opurtunity to teach and help many of his children come back to him.

Next my companion got way sick during the week and Thursday night he got really bad and wasn't responding like he should and he started shaking really bad. I had to take him to the hospital at 12 o'clock at night and we were there until 3 in the morning. (The Ecuadorian hospitals are really slow at attending to people) But thankful my companion is now better so no worries.  He was dehydrated.

Then we changed houses this week and we found a way cool house that isn't above a chicken coop and the has windows that I can actually stick my head out of so I'm pretty stoked.

Lastly we were so blessed to have the baptism of V!! He's 83 years old and he's awesome. It was so cool to be part of his baptism and he was so happy. He's a great little guy. He walks just a little bit slower that turtle, and his baptism was the first time he had bathed in the last 4 months! He loves little kids; he pretends to throw rocks at the little kids around his house and they all scream and run and they call him grandpa :) I love him and it was wonderful to get to know him and really feel love for him and his family.

Well I'm doing well family. I love this work and hope all is well in Utah!

Love, Elder Lignell

Week Seventy Seven in Ecuador - May 11, 2015 - Recognize God in Your Life Everyday

Hey family!

Wow it was so awesome to be able to see all of you guys yesterday! And we were so blessed to be able to have the skype work this time. I could see you all and you could see me ¡¡¡Que bendicion!!! haha but honestly it was so great to see everyone and know that you are all doing well. Thanks for always suporting me and helping me to stay animated out here.  

Tell Jake not to worry about his test because his seminary won't affect his grade point average. What should matter for him is just to learn the scriptures because  that is what will benefit him most in the mission! :)  

And yes we were able to do a little bit of shopping today. We went to a place called the bahia which is like a giant strip mall with thousands of little tents all selling different things. However they have way to many clothing tents and not enough typical stuff from Ecuador, but I was able to find a cool hammock that I bought. So when I get back we can set it up underneath the tree house! It'll be way cool! We also took some cool pictures, I'll send you them in a sec. 

So anyways now about this week. Well we worked really hard and it was honestly a little bit tough because on Sunday we passed by all of our investigators houses to bring them to church and not a single one was in their house! They had all left early for Mother's Day, to their grandma's house or to the cemetery or on vacation. And it sorta stunk... it was the first time in more than a year that I haven't brought at least one person to church... So I was a little bit bummed out, but being able to talk to you guys helped out a ton.

 

When I was bearing my testimony to you guys the first time in Spanish I was thinking in my head as the words came out "wow my testimony has changed, and grown so much" and after finishing the call I realized that it didn't matter that no one came to church. We tried our best and things just didn't work out. That will never mean that I am not having success. I was able to hear from my own voice the "true success" that I've had so far in my mission. And it got me a lot more excited to finish out the time God has given me here. I have five months left. Five months to give all of my heart might mind and strength to bring others unto Christ and I have to take advantage of every second.  

I love all of you to death! I love this mission and I love what I'm doing! Remember to recognize what God does in your lives everyday...Because he does a lot :)

Love, Elder Lignell

                           I was able to make a baptism date with Ronald McDonald!

                                                                      P-Day!

 

Week Seventy Six in Ecuador - May 4, 2015 - Never a Normal Day When You Are Zone Leader :)

Hey guys,

Well this week was yet again very interesting. I've decided being a zone leader means you hardly ever get normal days! It's always a mystery what's going to happen. Whether it's missionaries in need of help, or that are trying to get a long or a meeting with the President or the assistants...It's definitely never boring and it always keeps me on my toes.

For instance, this week I had an interchange with another missionary that was ordered by the President of the mission that lasted for 5 days... So when I finally got back to my real area all the members had thought that I was gone forever. But honestly, I am loving this time of my mission! I love trying to help others and getting to know the investigators of all the different missionaries. One of the greatest things is doing the baptismal interviews where I get the chance to sit and talk one on one with the investigators that are going to get baptized. It's so cool to see the conversion that so many of these people have had and to hear their small testimonies as they are just starting out in this gospel. I promise every time it strengthens my own testimony just a little  bit more.

Anyways, I am so excited to skype with you guys this Sunday!!!!!  

And I'm glad you liked the pictures of me and my companion. I do get a long with him super well, haha he's absolutely crazy. But it's great... we've had some hilarioous stories together and he makes the work a ton of fun.

Anyways I had a great week.  In the small amount of time I got to work in my own area we had a few cool experiences. One was that we went to teach a family that we have been teaching for awhile and when we got there we didn't have anything planned to teach them that day but they asked us to share something with them. So we prayed and in my mind I felt impressed to share about  Lehi's dream and the iron rod and tree of life, all of that. Anyways when we started reading I thought to myself, "why am I sharing this... and how am I going to relate this story to them...? I really didn't know why I chose that story or anything, I just felt the impression that I should. And at the end of reading and explaining it Carlos the husband said to me, "Why did you share that story?" and I had nothing to say, but I just said I felt like I needed to. He then began to explain how he felt that the entire story related directly to him and his life and he thanked us for sharing it! It was so amazing to see how following the Spirit, even when something doesn't seem logical, will always work because God loves everyone and if we listen to the Spirit we can be instruments in his hands to touch the lives of others.

I love this work... I love being a missionary and all the wonderful things I am learning. It's so amazing that God lives and loves us and shows his love everyday without ceasing...we just have to look for it and recognize it and we'll then see that it's all around us in every moment.

Love you guys,

Elder Lignell