Bad pancakes, not enough contacts (or not the right contacts), the highest mountain in the world

Hola todos!

This week we had a lot of lessons fall through, and we weren´t able to contact enough to find very many new investigators. We did contact into a drunk man in a bar who sang us some love songs and told me "Hasta la Vista baby"

Monica is progressing very well. This Saturday, she said her first prayer in public. It makes me so happy to watch people come closer to God.

Abraham is really enjoying the church meetings. Our only problem is that we haven´t had very much time to teach him. He still needs to learn a lot.

Christian is also really excited to continue, but he hasn´t yet attended church.

Today we took a trip to Chimborazo with a large group of missionaries from the zone. Chimborazo is the largest volcano in the world. I wish I had a picture of the whole thing from the distance, but it´s hard to take one on a clear day. From bottom to top, Everest is the largest mountain in the world, but if you count the shape of the earth the top of Chimborazo is closer to the sun than everest. Of course we didn´t go to the top, but we still were up really high. 5100 meters!

We had to hitchhike to make it back to the city because the bus that came back to pick us up was full. There were some really interesting deer llama type things up there called Vicuñas.

My companion and I have been experimenting with making pancakes. The pancakes in these pictures have banana, choclate, chia seeds, a little mayonaise, and a little yogurt. They made my companion sick, but not me. He says that I´m a pig.

Next week I will contact a lot more people, and hopefully not more drunk people.

I will have more investigators to talk about! 

Gracias por todo!

Elder Cloward

Lots of rain, more cake, Mother´s day.

Feliz día de la Madre from a very rainy Riobamba!

We worked really hard this week, but a lot of rain made contacting much harder. We taught a few part member families and have a good chance at baptizing many of the nonmembers in the family. Christian and Monica are members of a strong family of recent converts who really want to change their lives but don´t have a lot of time to meet with us. Monica has a hard time because she is only 18 years old but already has a 2 year old very rebellious daughter. Abraham, the nephew of the branch mission leader came to church last week and really enjoyed it. 

My parents gave me some silly putty to use to play with crazy kids while I was here, but I ended up using it to patch some cracks in the wall of our house to keep the rain out. One of the days this week it rained really hard for the entire day. 

We bought another cake for 8 dollars this time, only because my companion wanted to. It has a jam filling on the inside, and is even more delicious than the first.

For Mother´s day, I had a wonderful opportunity to call my family on skype for 45 minutes. I was able to bear strong testimony that what I was doing was of God, and that perfect love casteth out all fear. 

I know God is real, and he loves us. I know that his son Jesus Christ is our savior and redeemer and because of him we can repent. I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God, and that this church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is God´s church on the earth.

Love you all!

Elder Cloward

7 dollar cake for Emma´s birthday

8 dollar cake. Really tasty inside!

My companion has an electric machine that sends electricity
through your muscles to help them relax?
I don´t really know what it is meant for.
But here I am sending pulses of electricity through my arms.

The very empty living room of our new house. 

Our study room

Our bedroom

Luckily we don´t have to shower by bucket,
but the water is poor here so we have a large filtered jug.
The water from the shower is really really warm. 

Cake, Mr Pig, and a house... finally.

Hola Todos!

This week was really hard and really great. We had lesson after lesson fall through, so most of our lessons have been with members, and we've been walking everywhere. We've found some great people to teach, but it´s hard to stay on top of them.

We found one man who has been having some really hard family problems and was praying to know what to do before we knocked on his door. He makes soccer balls for a living, and has a big reason to need the gospel in his life.

We also started teaching the nonmember nephew of the branch mission leader, and he has a baptismal date set for June 2. He isn´t super social, so we are going to try to find him a friend that can help him feel welcome in the church.

The branch is really great. This fast and testimony meeting, almost everyone bore their testimony, so Elder Sócola and I didn´t get the chance. 

There is a meat store here that keeps a dead pig (se llama Mr. Pig) outside of the store for a couple days before cooking it and selling it. Yuck!

Because Tuesday was my sister's birthday party, we bought a really big and tasty cake from a local bakery for seven dollars. Things are a lot cheaper here, except technology, cars and shoes (because they aren't made here). I heard that an Iphone X here is about 2000 dollars. Eek!

We´ve been sleeping in other Elder´s houses for the past two weeks since we´ve been here, and finally we´ve found our own apartment to rent! It is decent sized with a living room two bedrooms a big kitchen and a nice bathroom. A lot of the furniture in it is older, but overall it is a really nice place, and I am excited to have our own house, that is in our sector so we don´t have to walk or ride the bus as often. It will help our schedules be a bit more solid, because right now we haven´t had a lot of time to study because we have been walking so much.

I don´t have my camera right now, but I will send pictures of the house, the cake, and maybe something else exciting, funny, or random next week.

Gracias por todo sus oraciones!

Elder Cloward 

First week in Ecuador!

Hola Todos!

The view outside the zone leaders apartment.
I like to watch the cats outside in the morning.

I don´t have a whole lot of time right now, but I will see what I can write. 

Ecuador is incredible! It is so beautiful here. The weather is perfect in the mornings and hot in the afternoons. Although my companion thinks that it is cold in the mornings. I am serving in an area called Alamos in Riobamba. We are starting the area, so it has been a while since Elders were here so we don´t have a house or a phone. We have to share with some different Elders, the zone leaders. We are pretty lost most of the time, and we have to walk a lot to get to our sector. 

The branch here is really awesome, and we´ve eaten a lot of great food at the members homes. The food here is incredible, and I haven´t gotten sick yet! 

We generally stay in the members homes during lunch for a while, because the lunches are really big. 

We´ve found a couple of great families to teach also. One family was actually four living together in one house. They were very receptive to our message, and with one lesson, we had 7 new investigators. Que genial!

Massive waterfall!

This P-day we took a trip out into the jungle to see a massive waterfall, and that is why I don´t have a whole lot of time to write. My companion wants to visit more out in that area, so maybe next week we will leave earlier in order to return with more time to write, and eat lunch, because we haven´t done that yet.

I am working on the spanish, because it is hard to understand people right now, but I can speak ok. 

Thank you for all the support!

Us near the waterfall!

Me getting drenched behind massive waterfall!