Never would I think to feel Godly sorrow for sleeping in, but I felt pretty bad this morning :P

Hola todos!

A lot happened this week, and when a lot happens, time moves really really slowly. 

For one, we had transfers, Elder Sócola left :(, but Elder Gómez came! :)

I cooked papi-huevo becase elder Sócola left. I burned myself with the oil :P

Elder Gómez is from Lima Perú, has been in the mission the same amount of time as me, and has been a member of the church for a little over a year. He has a strong testimony of the gospel and especially eternal families, so we get along really well.

Elder Gómez and I outside of the chapel. I had really bad allergies so my nose is a little red.​

We´ve been working really hard together to talk to a lot of people, but my goal is to talk with everyone in the street, and we are still really far from that goal. 

We´ve been struggling in this sector since we opened it to find a lot of new investigators to teach every week. Often we hear stories about missionaries in the right place at the right time, but I always feel like we aren´t in the right place at the right time to find people :( :P.  But I still have faith that this is God´s work, and we are his servants. 

Monica was baptized this week!!! The service was really powerful. She bore a short but strong testimony after that she knew this was the right thing to do to help her daughter. Wow!!!!

​Monica at her baptism. Her brother, daughter, us Elders, and the Hermanas are in the foto also.

We are also working with a part member family that has a sister in the mission. The dad in the family doesn´t have very much time to meet with us because he works as a taxi driver in the night time and is sleeping during the day. His three daughters really want to be baptized, but we want to help him first and baptize the whole family. 

Zone Conference, Divisions, Lessons falling, Food

Hola todos! 

This week was pretty hard. 

We had zone conference, which was very powerful and all about humility. I learned a lot about being a more humble missionary. God has given us everything, and he wants us to use every single one of our gifts as the Savior would, to bless the lives of others.

We also had divisions and I got to go work with the district leader in his sector for a day. I had the opportunity to testify powerfully to his investigators. I really enjoyed it!

This week was a lot like the last. We contacted more than double the number of people, and found a lot of people that had a lot of interest in the message, but the lessons with them fell through. It really stressed me out, but we will try again to get in contact with them next week. 

Abraham passed his baptismal interview, so now all we have to do is make sure he doesn't drink any more coffee, and help him grow his testimony in preparation for his baptism next Saturday. Yay!

Monica and Christian have been a little hard to get a hold of because they spend a lot of time away from the house. I´m worried for Christian because we haven´t seen him in a week or more. Please pray that we can find time to teach the two of them and help them come closer to Christ.

We recently also helped a young boy named Jesùs to accept a date for his baptism. He is of a less active family, and his baptism will help strengthen their family a lot.

Here is a fruit that is really interesting called granadia

and some tasty cookies called Amor

what my companion did today for P-day

Baptisms, Changes, Really Good Week!

Hola Todos!

Things are looking a lot better than last week. 

One thing's for sure - we found a lot more people this week that are interested in our message.

There are three young girls that we found - Anabel, Maribel, and Daniya - who have a sister who is a member and want to be baptized but haven't yet because they want to wait for their sister to come back first. We are going to try to set up a Skype call so they can be baptized and their sister can watch. And their uncle Diego also really wants to be baptized to set a good example for his 2 year old son.

We taught Mónica almost every day this last week and she also passed her baptismal interview! She is so prepared. Although we still haven't found her brother Christian.

Abraham was baptized this weekend and also a family of four that the sisters have been teaching. It was so exciting to see so many children of God make the first step to return to him!

Abraham (on the right) with his cousin, the branch mission leader

The large family and a lot of the branch before their baptism.

On a sadder note, this week is changes, and my companion was called back to the coast. I will have to stay here and be in charge of my sector. How intimidating!

I will really miss Elder Sócola and his goofy spirit. I won´t find another companion to tickle me or point to dog droppings on the ground and say "for you" Also, he won´t get the chance to see all of the great work he started here. :(. And I will have a harder time learning Spanish without him.

I truly feel like he was an answer to my prayer when it comes to learning Spanish, because I had to wait in Pennsylvania for 6 weeks speaking less Spanish so it got a little rusty. God told me if I worked hard in Pennsylvania, I would be just fine when I made it here.  Elder Sócola was the reason that my Spanish grew tremendously and I was "just fine". He loved me and taught me so much.

Gracias por todo las oraciones!

Elder Cloward

A foto of Chimborazo peaking above the clouds during the evening.

It is really big, and marks the northern part of our sector.