Week Eighty Eight In Ecuador - July 27, 2015 - A New Companion :)

 Hey family I'm here again. 

 This week has been great, we worked hard... yet again. haha I fill like slowly every week I get more and more tired but I keep working just as hard, and it's great! I feel good, but definitely tired! haha I'll be sure to take a long nap when I get back to make up for these two years.

 

Anyways I'm glad everyone is doing well. Make sure you take more pictures... I like seeing you guys.

That's awesome about Dallin Latimer. Wow I had no idea he was 18... in my mind he's still like 12 years old haha don't tell him that. But do tell his family that I'm sure he will be an awesome missionary. I'm so glad he could go into the mission knowing what the Spirit is and how to listen to its promptings, that's like the most important thing to learn as a missionary. So he's already one step ahead!

SO this week we had changes... my companion Elder Smith left... which was sad cause he was definitely one if not my best companion that I've had. However my new companion is named Elder Forrest! He's from Ranchocucamanga California!  (didn't we know someone from there?) Anyways he is also way cool, he has about 21 months in the mission so we have a lot of time put together but we're both excited to work so I'm pumped :)

 We also had two baptisms this week!!!! one named A.  where her whole family is members and she was the last one to ge baptized and the other is named Y she is 37 years old and lives with her husband and he two little kids. Her and her husband have had a few problems but they are trying to work everything out, she explained to us that sometimes they fought and she would sit alone and just feel horrible but the Saturday before her baptism it happened again and while she was sitting alone she read out of the Liahona and she said the terrible feeling wasn't there. In fact she felt good, and safe and happy. Despite all of her other problems and from that moment on she knew that she had to do it. That she needed a baptism. I had the wonderful opportunity to baptize her and wow,  I felt the spirit so strong and she had the biggest smile on her face as she left the font.

I was thinking a little bit about our job as a missionary, and we have all these people that are progressing towards a baptism and every night we plead to God that they can recieve their own testimonies and be sure of what they are going to do. It's amazing how he not only answers their prayers as well as he answers ours in helping them make it to the waters of baptism.

 I love this work! I'm happy. I can't believe this time is coming to an end. I just hope I can finish strong and give all I've got :)

 Love you thanks for always being so supportive!

 Love, Elder Lignell

                                                        Our Recent Baptisms :)

 

Week Eighty Seven in Ecuador - July 20, 2015 - Great Zone Training Meeting

Dear Family,

I'm so glad you had a good time at girls camp! That's awesome. And I'm planning on Jake waking up early with me to do companion ship study together in the mornings... he'll have to start preparing now!

And I would be stoked to be Jake's home teaching companion.. we'll reactivate the whole ward!! 

Oh and of course mom... Being with God comes before everything but being Mormon shouldn't make you lame... unfortunately a few people take religion to an extreme and start bad stereotypes for all from our religion. God wants us to be happy and love life but obviously following his commandments as well. 

Anyways this week has been pretty crazy, first off we had a great training meeting with all of the zones here in Guayaquil and the president talked a lot about our purpose as a missionary and also talked about 1 nephi 3:7 And it came to pass that I, Nephi, said unto my father: I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them. 

 I think we have all heard this scipture a million times  however our president explained that verse 7 is great but really verse 15 is a lot better. "But behold I said unto them that: As the Lord liveth,and as we live, we will not go down unto our father in the wilderness until we have accomplished the thing which the Lord hath commanded us.

In this verse it happened after their trial. He explained to us how it is easy to be excited to work or follow the comandments when everything is easy but then when it is hard or when we don't have success the first time is when it all really matters. The brothers of Nephi lost their faith and claimed that it was impossible but Nephi states, I wont go back until I've completed what God sent me to do!

It was super sweet.

Also this week we had a baptism named K. And wow his baptism was super spiritual and he was sooo excited to take that leap of faith.

Right before his baptism we found him sitting in a room in the church meditating and we asked him what was wrong and he said nothing just that he was thinking about all that would change, all of the old mistakes and the new person that he wanted to become. After he was baptized he just looked at us and said "gracias" It was I felt the spirit so strong, and I know he could feel that same spirit testify to him of what he was doing.

Then on Sunday night we stopped a robbery haha A lady was walking on the street and a kid was trying to yank her back pack away from her but when he saw us he ran away, haha I didnt even realize it was a robbery beforehand because no one was even screaming, but then the lady started to thank us for coming just in time!

 Also during planning last night I heard three different gun shots outside the house, woohhooo. 

Oh and today me and my comp. went to Chilis, it was amazing! I ate bbq chicken wings and a bacon burger. It was just like being in the United states again.

I'm also super excited for this up coming week! We have a few people that we want to help make the descion to get baptized. Please pray for them all! 

Love you guys hope you all have a great week oh and send pics of whats going on!!!

 

 

                                        Our Zone

                                            Notice How Swollen Our Investigator's Knee Is,
                                            But He Still Came to Church on Sunday!

                                      The Recent Baptism of "K".

                                         Me and My Companion At Chili's ....So Good !

 Love, ELder Lignell

Week Eighty Six in Ecuador - July 13, 2015 - Busy But Fun P-Day

Dear Family,

We are having a great P-Day however it has been super busy! We had to go all over the place today and hardly had very much time to rest. But it was an awesome day! We went thrift shopping at a flea market and we ate McDonalds and bought matching ties.

That's sweet about girls camp!! You'll have a blast, and hopefully there aren't very many girls that cry this time :)

Give Jake props for me, but tell him to write me. :)

That's sweet you saw the article of the pope... I bought a shirt with his picture on it today... hahaha

Now about my week, it has been really sweet. We worked like crazy, and I hardly even had time to work with our own investigators. I was going all over the place helping the missionaries in the zone. But it was awesome because I had some sweet spiritual experiences and we have some awesome investigators getting ready for their baptisms. For instance we have K who is 20 years old and is a friend of a recently returned missionary who is preparing to be baptized this Saturday that is coming up. But on Wednesday we went and talked with him and we asked him if we could move his baptism date up a week because he was ready to take the step and he told us, "I already said I would get baptized, it's your decision on when you want to baptize me" haha it was great. He is sooo awesome, He told us yesterday after watching a video that he would like to be a missionary as well!!!

Then on Sunday after church we had a super odd lunch, it was cow foot soups with a main course of cow stomach in peanut sauce and a nice cup of warm water to drink. Probably the greatest lunch I've had so far!

The flea market was awesome today, I bought a Levi button up and also an American flag vest for 4 dollars and another t shirt for 2 dollars more it was so great! I'll send pictures next week.

This week was wonderful, I read a lot about trusting in God this week and how we can truly follow him in every moment. I know that if we really give everything to follow him he'll help us be an instrument in his hands and he will free us from our difficulties and temptations. Alma 38:5 "And now my son, Shiblon, I would that ye should remember, that as much as ye shall put your trust in God even so much ye shall be delivered out of your trials, and your troubles, and your afflictions, and ye shall be lifted up at the last day." We need to completely rely on God in every moment and he will be our light and our anchor and our support in all that we do!

I love you all so much have a wonderful week.
                                                            Our Purchases At The Flea Market :)

 

Elder Lignell

Week Eighty Five in Ecuador - July 6, 2015 - I Got My Package :)

Hey fam! I got my package!!! wooo! It was perfect! I love the ties and all that was in there! I didn't even know they sold peanut butter jars sooo big... wow peanut butter is cool!

That's nice about Carol Williamson, that makes me happy to know that she liked what I said.

That's awesome about your girl camp I hope it's a giant success. I'm really glad you like your calling.

Thank you sooo much for the BYU application. I will be praying to get in :) 

You're right dad is awesome.Tell Jake hi for me :).

Alright now about my week.This week has been amazing! We worked like crazy again. And yet again the lord has blessed me and my companion in sooo many ways it is unbelievable. I honestly love being a missionary more than anything else and I can't believe how much stronger my testimony has grown since I've been out here.

First off this week was the 4th of July! We celebrated having hamburgers for lunch and then at night we had a barbeque with our investigators and played games. They're this family that is just perfect. I feel like family around them and they love listening to our messages. And they have been going to church for the last two weeks. We had a lesson with them this week where, we shared about the word of wisdom and got them all to commit to obey the word of wisdom, and one of the little girls said the prayer and in her prayer she asked God if we could keep visiting them and if it could be more often. And I don't know I just felt super loved. And I felt like we were fufilling our purpose as missionaries. I could feel the love that they had for us, and the love that the Savior has for them. It truly is amazing to be able to find families that change just from us two 20 year old kids teaching them about God. I've learned in the last few weeks that God is preparing peple for us to teach and being obedient and diligent helps u s to find them. 

The Pope is visiting Ecuador right now and it's the first time in 30 years that he has come here, so it's pretty sweet. It's pretty much the only thing people are talking about right now.

Anyways, this week has been great, we have been so blessed and I just can't wait to keep working here and helping everyone we find. It's crazy to think that I have about 3 months left... and I honestly dont want this time to end. The Spirit is one of the coolest things on earth, and before my mission I didn't really know too much about what the Spirit was or how it worked and how to feel it. I'm still not perfect at being able to feel it at every moment or know exactly what I need to do in every moment. But now I know that the Spirit is real and that God does answer us and give us impressions. I love a talk that I think Elder Bednar gave where he talks about three ways that we get answers through the Spirit. 1. Like a light in a dark room and everything is lit in one moment. 2. Like how the sun comes up in the morning and little by little it gets brighter and brighter until all is lit. 3. Like on a foggy day where you cant see hardly anything infront of you but there is a small light in the distance and you hae to just take steps of faith until slowly you get to the light.

I love that example and it is so true! There is a mormon message that I would love you guys to watch, its called "The Hope of God's Light and it's on youtube on the mormon channel and it is awesome.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2w49_1a9X0Q

Love you all to death and hope you have a wonderful week.

Love, ELder Lignell