So much work

Hola todos!

This week was really really full. Yet we didn´t knock on a single door. We´ve been working as a zone to find more investigators from the members, and we only found new investigators from the members this week. It was incredible. 14 of these people attended (I almost wrote asisted. If you know Spanish you´ll understand that joke) church this Sunday which is more than I have ever seen in all of my mission. I felt like I was working in Daycare again with so many people to keep track of, but it was wonderful and they all had a really good time. 

Midway through the week, we had a space of time where we could have gone contacting, but my companion decided instead to call a less active member. When we got there he told us he wanted us to teach his sister. In about 20 minutes we were in her house teaching about God´s plan for us to their family of 6. It was really incredible. It was a lot more efficient than knocking on doors. 

Preach my gospel says that people that come to the church because of their friends have a better chance of being baptized and staying active. If you know someone who has been struggling with problems recently in their life, invite them to hear about God´s plan for us from the missionaries. Be present for the teaching. God wants all of us to be a part of his gathering of Israel, and it starts with you. (If you haven´t read or watched the youth devotional by President Nelson and his wife, I suggest you watch it. It´s really good.)

Mango season has started hear. If you find them cheap they are about 20 cents a mango. It makes me happy! But it messes up my lips a little bit to eat them raw. :/

We wanted to go see more waterfalls this week, and we thought we could walk to a place where there were a few, but it turned out that they were so much further than we thought, so instead we found a creek and hopped from rock to rock. I accidentally got one of my shoes wet, and then it was harder for me to find traction so later on I fell into the water a little bit. Oops.

Well I don´t really have that much more to say. Things are rolling along nicely, and we may have a few baptisms in the next few weeks. Marianella has finished a trip and now is working again to be baptized, maybe in the next two weeks, and the family that we found two weeks ago is progressing really well. We may have a few more coming along soon, with all of the people that attended (asisted) church this week. 

Overall, with all of the work that has been going on I´m beginning to feel a little stressed. I plan to do a few more things this week in the evenings before I go to bed to relax a little bit and clear my mind. But overall I am really happy.

Thanks for all of your prayers!

Elder Cloward

Hope

Hola todos!

This week was really great. I got sick again, for the third time, but luckily I wasn´t throwing up or passing the bathroom every 30 minutes. Instead I just felt really achy in my body, and we stayed inside the house for almost the whole day sleeping. :P Don´t worry I´m better now. 

After about three weeks, we finally played soccer again in the zone. I was super excited and had a really fun time.

This week was full of great examples of the hope the gospel brings. We found a man named David Jesus who recently was jumped and sent to the hospital where he saw what death would be like. When we taught him the plan of salvation he said that he wanted to do all he could to make it to be with God again.

Well I´m all out of time. There is so much more I want to write about but I will have to shove it all in next time. 

Elder Cloward

Milagros

Hola todos!

I don´t have too much to say this week, but we had a baptism! 

Carolina was baptized this week and it was really powerful. She has lived most of her life in the church but hasn`t been baptized yet. When we first met with her, she was so ready to join the church and progress more. 

Also, the hermanas in the other ward sent us some amazing news yesterday. They taught a lesson to a young woman who had been attending church in the stake center for about a month. She and her family accepted to be baptized in a month but they live in our sector. We now have the wonderful opportunity to teach them. I am really excited. 

It is amazing to me to see how much the gospel of Jesus Christ changes the lives of people, and really none of the changes come because of the work that we as missionaries are doing. The real change goes on between the people and God.

I´m really happy to be a part of this work, and I hope you all have a great week.

Elder Cloward

A week full of surprises

Mon, Oct 8, 5:50 PM

Hola todos!

This week was a lot of craziness. We had interviews with the mission president Tuesday. A zone conference Wednesday, District meeting Thursday Service painting a house Friday, and general conference in the weekend. Que loco.

Before I tell you all about the crazy things that happened, I´ll let you know how the investigators are doing.

Our last lesson with Carolina before her interview was powerful. I asked her at the end. Why do you want to be baptized? She, almost crying said, "Por que creo que lo necesito." Because I believe I need it. Wow! She passed the interview and we will hold the baptismal service this upcoming Saturday. Anahí was supposed to have here interview this weekend but for family issues she may not be baptized until December. =(

The Espinoza family (Marianel Faviola Domenica) came to one of the sessions of conference, and we did some great service for them that helped us gain confidence with their son Manuel. Faviola turned 33 and she invited us to eat crab soup. It was really tasty, but a little difficult to eat.

 

The funniest part of the week was after the service... The water in our house house wasn´t working at all, and we were covered with paint. So we had some big bottles of water in the house that previous missionaries used as weights for doing exercises and we bathed ourselves with that water. It was really cold, and also who knows how long it was in there. Luckily the water in the house works now. Here is us and a member with our paint weapons. =P 

In other news I may be becoming lactose intolerant... well here they sell milk in a few different ways. The cheapest kind is in a bag and sells for 80 cents a liter. But that milk kills my stomach on the inside so I´ve been doing my best to stay away from it. It´s really tempting when people serve hot chocolate.

This week for Pday we wanted to go to a zoo, but got lost in the process and took a bus to a small town outside of Santo Domingo called La Concordia. We wanted to do something fun there but we didn´t find anything and instead bought some Yogoso (frozen yogurt) and rode in MotoTaxis. It was the biggest waste of Pday ever. But it was fun for the laughs. Mototaxi 

This is one of the favorite foods here in Ecuador. It is called encebollado. It is a soup with fish, potatoes, shrimp onion, and chifle. Riquissimo. 

Well the general conference was also quite a surprise. They will be changing the church schedule to allow more time for learning in the home. I think this is a confirmation that God has more trust in us and it is time for us to grow even closer to him. It was incredible to me how many of the speakers talked about our relationship with God. He is our father, and with the many changes being made in his Church. He is inviting us to come and be with him. How incredible!

My favorite talk was about doing a self analysis of your life to see where you are in your progression, where you are going, and where you want to go. Then change set goals to better reach your long term desires. I would invite you all to look at your life this week, and if you need to make some adjustments to better become the person you want to be, make them.

Also transfers were this week, and for the first time in my mission, my companion and I stayed companions. It may be because we only have 3 weeks together for the emergency transfers. But I´m excited to keep working with him.

Well I believe that that is all folks. Thanks so much for all of the prayers. 

Elder Cloward

Today I really don´t know what to put here.

Mon, Oct 1, 6:04 PM

Hola todos!

I don´t have a lot of time, but I am doing very well. 

Our investigators are also progressing nicely. 

Carolina, is completely ready for her interview and we still have a week to teach her.

Anahí has started reading the book of mormon

We had a family home evening with the family I talked about last time, which really strengthened their testimonies and their desires to keep moving towards baptism. 

We went to see some waterfalls this Pday.

Here are some pictures.

Giant frog!

The one dollar coins sometimes have presidents on them. Here is my collection. 1-20

This is called Corviche. It is made with a dough from a kind of banana and peanuts wioth cheese on the inside. Pretty tasty

Well gotta go. Hopefully I will have more time to write next time!

Elder Cloward

Otra vez estamos aquí. Tan rápido?!

Mon, Sep 24, 6:01 PM

Hola todos!

First of all. Wow, time really flew this week.

Second, I really don´t know what to tell you all, because the work was really the same as in all of the rest of the weeks. We worked hard and we found some really great people, and we had some fun, and in the end of it all, I felt the spirit really strongly and grew up a little more. I guess that´s missonary work.  

We found a really great family on Wednesday. They are Marianela, an older lady who wants to come closer to God now that she is nearing the end of her life, her daughter Faviola, who visited the church when she was about 12 but never joined it, and the daughters of Faviola. We found them knocking on doors. We went to visit one of their neighbors, but he needed to run an errand really quickly so it gave us about 30 minutes and really close to him we found them. They are all really excited about the church and came yesterday. It was amazing!

Also, we taught an 84-year-old man who has visited the church two times now. His name is Victor. He loves to talk all about his life and the great things he did. We had to teach really simply to him because if we didn´t he would talk our ears off. But he really wants to be baptized so we set a date with him. 20th of october. Pretty exciting!

For PDay we played card games with the zone leaders and tried to clean our house, but it is still really messy so I´m not going to send any pictures of the house yet.

But here´s a few pictures to help you understand a little more about Santo Domingo

A lot of what we eat during the day is rice and meat and a little bit of vegetables so I have take it to my own to buy and eat fruit in the house. It is really really tasty and cheaper here too.

his made me laugh a bit. It´s a percussion instrument being sold as a tourist item but the image is pretty funny.

This is almost always how it is in the morning outside our window. Completely foggy. Sometimes you can´t see across the street.

Do you ever feel like you´ve been hit by a car?

Hola todos!

The title is only metaphorical, sorry to worry you all.

But what happened was pretty unexpected. We had emergency transfers and Elder Toaza left for Quito. Behind he left me an enormous sector that I don´t know, and his assignment as district leader... that´s why I feel like I´ve been hit by a car.

On a different note, my new companion is named Elder Burga. He is from Lima Peru really, really fun. He arrived here in Ecuador at the same time that I did. So we both are also rather young in the mission. We`ve also had a lot of great teaching moments together.

On Saturday we taught an investigator named Carolina. She has been struggling with loneliness recently but we had a lesson in her house and had an activity where we all answered questions that I had written on little pieces of paper. Things like, bear your testimony of Jesus Christ, or express your feeling towards someone you love. Everyone felt the spirit there and we invited Carolina to get baptized on October 13th. She accepted and came to church yesterday. Wow!

Also today we climbed the only hill that is in the city on Santo Domingo as a district. It was fun, and I got a little sunburnt, but we took lots of pictures. I hope you enjoy them all.

Well unfortunately I believe that that´s all folks. Until next time!

Elder Cloward

The mosquitos have me beat 13 to 10

Sep 10, 2018, 6:08 PM

Hola todos!

This week was great! We worked we played and we ate lots of great food! Yes I can finally eat again!

First of all, we had 3 people get baptized here yesterday. Flor and her son Andres, and Isabel. It was really powerful and we all felt the spirit. 

Second, yesterday a couple came to church. The husband is less active and the the wife isn`t a member, but when we visited them, the wife already believed that the church is true. It was a miracle. They have such a bright future ahead and I am  glad that God has given me the chance to be a part of it. 

Georgina decided that she didn´t want to get baptized or hear from us which was kind of sad but her son is still really excited about the church and we are going to see what his plans are.

More news next week.

Today for p-day we went and visited a community of Tsachilas, a native culture that live away from the rest of Santo Domingo. They have a lot of really interesting cultural activities including painting their hair red and speaking a different language. It was pretty exciting. 

Also in the pictures below you will see all of the wonderful foods I have eaten recently. Such a blessing to be able to eat. 

The baptism was a little rushed because we had to do it right before church started, but the spirit was really strong

Here I am chewing on sugar cane. It is really tasty. Much better than the white processed stuff they sell in the united states.

Chicken feet anyone?

This is cacao, or cocoa. The stuff that becomes choclate. It has a hard outer shell, but inside there´s a strange white gummy thing and a bean that when dry becomes choclate. The white gummy stuff is also really tasty.

Here is the medicine room of the Tsachilas. The tour guide is one of them and her clothing is what they wear. It may be hard to see but she also has lines painted on her skin. I´m really curious about their culture, but they didn`t tell us very much as to why they do the things they do... :(

Well that's all folks I gotta go and this keyboard is starting to bug me because it likes to throw in random letters and numbers sometimes.

Wish you all the best of luck!

Elder Cloward

This place feels like the hood...

Hola todos!

What a crazy week here in Santo Domingo. (I almost wrote Riobamba)

This place is crazy. 

First of all it gets hot here when the sun comes out but when there are clouds it is really nice weather. 

Second, It is really green and happy here. 

Third the people are really open and funny here. I have a hard time understanding all of the jokes they make here. 

Fourth the food is really really good (but I can`t really eat it yet because I`ve been really sick to my stomach). 

Fifth there is a massive market here that measures multiple blocks. 

Sixth the work is a lot faster here, or more people are willing to listen.

Seventh, I love it here!

My new companion is a blast. He jokes around a lot with the members here, and had a rock band before the mission. He can sing and play guitar really well. He`s from Guayaquil and has a really big loving heart, but like a lot of missionaries I've met, hides it behind his joking nature. I really love the guy, even though I can`t always understand his accent. (the accent from the coast is a lot different then the accent from the cierra)

As the missionary work goes, when I got here we already had 3 people with dates for baptism. Andres and Flor (son and mother), and Isabel (who I met yesterday). All of them will be baptized next week and I`ve only taught one lesson with each of them. I did however have the great opportunity to testify to them that the decisions that they were making were going to change their lives and help them come closer to God. Baptism is what God wants for all of his children.

Also we set 3 more people up on date. One of them (Georgina) has been struggling with health problems and has to have dialysis every Wednesday and Friday, but she is very open to hear from us and her son is very excited about the gospel. 

We also met a young girl named Anayhi that is an 8 year-old daughter of a less active family that wants to be baptized. She is really excited to learn and her family wants to support her in the decision.

Finally Lilian, who has been listening to missionaries for a long time accepted a baptismal date. We read in Mosiah 18 where it says "if this is the desire of your hearts, what prevents you from entering into the waters of baptism." (not exact wording). And Lilian told us... "nada" pr `nothing´ It was really wonderful! 

I`ve got a bunch of pictures this time so I hope you like them!

They told us to show the prettiest face we had...

MY companion Elder Toaza was cutting up some onions...

We played a game where you have to talk fast and pass a fraise around. If you goofed it up you recieved some lipstick in the face. Luckily I only messed up once.

Here is Anayi and her older sister

This is a send off picture from my favorite family from Riobamba. My companion says he`s got 8 months left... :P

My companion Elder Toaza is a really goofy guy.

I thought missionaries couldn`t ride motorcycles.

Sick again... Cambios!... cheap shoes... and finally an email with pictures.

A picture of all of the all of the missionaries in Riobamba. 

From left to right Elder Cosio, he´s a really good friend of mine because we both have the same amount of time in Ecuador and in Riobamba. Yo. Elder Brown, tall Elder from Alabama. Elder Ochoa, tall from colombia, he´s interesting because before the mission he was a laywer, he´s 25 years old. My companion Elder Salazar, Elder Astuñaupa, Hermana Salazar (yes they´re are two with that name in the zone) and Hermana Bashford who was in the MTC at the same time as I was.

The two on the ground are Elder Johnson and Elder Wilson. 

Hola todos!

First of all, I am happy! Every day I get to play a little part in the greatest work in the world. I get to study teach and help others live the true and restored gospel of Jesus Christ. What a blessing.

We moved houses in order to be a little closer to our sector and the new house is really nice, except the shower isn´t very hot. I´ll send some pictures. Although I won´t stay in that house for very long...

I did however get sick again from eating something bad. I threw up again but this time in a members house... oops... I´m doing a lot better now but my stomach is still really fragile. Which may be a problem because...

I´m traveling tomorrow! The changes came in and I was called to move to Santo Domingo. Santo Domingo is a larger city that is a lot lower in altitude. I may actually be able to breath when we play soccer as a zone or district. Being lower in altitude also means that it will be a lot hotter, and humid. Time to pack away my sweaters.

Although I am sad to leave my first area, I am very excited to go because a lot of Elder´s talk about Santo Domingo as if it was the best part of the mission. We´ll see. My sector is called Bombolí and is a hill that overlooks the city. It will be gorgeous. 

Oh I also bought a cheap ($7.50) pair of shoes for playing soccer. I didn´t yet take pictures of them but they´re alright. We played soccer once again with the Elders in Riobamba and I got to try them out. They are nothing special, but it´s nice to have a second pair of shoes in case one gets dirty.

We taught another great lesson to Patricia, and her daughter Natali joined in. At the beginning they served us coffee, so we decided to teach the word of wisdom, and at the end I felt prompted to promise very specific blessings to the both of them. The daughter is in university so I promised her better grades, and the mother has really bad alergies and I promised her health. It was really powerful. However, I won´t be able to see what happens as a turnout.

Joseph and Michael are really excited, but their father is a little skeptical. We met him a few days ago and he said if they are ready for baptism it´s ok, but he doesn´t think they will be. Elder Salazar will get to keep working through that problem, but I´m really glad I got to play a part in their conversion.

Well when you here from me next I will be in a much greener and hotter place. I wish you all the best!

Elder Cloward

The kitchen

We sleep in the living room because the others aren´t big enough

The study

We were too lazy to move the desk inside the house to do our language study.  That big thing behind us is chimborazo.

Que más ve!

Mon, Aug 20, 5:58 PM

Aquí vea! 

Hola Todos!

We are entering week six of the change. I´m a little worried and excited at the same time to leave. There are so many great people here, but I feel a little restless and like it is time to move on to another part of the mission. 

We had a really great week. We had divisions with the zone leaders and I learned a lot more about teaching from Elder Wilson. When you teach you must teach simply with clarity and directly so that everyone understands what God wants for them. The lessons we taught were not like any other lesson I had taught, but were very powerful and helped the people understand simple doctrinal truths. 

I also learned that it is really important to learn to love the people. 

The two young teenagers (Joseph and Michael) came to church and excepted a baptismal date for the 15th of September! They went to young mens so we didn´t get to see how they were in the 3rd hour but apparently they participated in class and really enjoyed it. They are what they call ´pilas´ here which is really smart and bright. I´m really excited for them.

José also was baptized this week and he asked me to confirm him. It was the second time I had done it, so I felt a little nervous, but I hope the blessings he received with bless him for the rest of his life. When he had the opportunity to bear his testimony after the baptism he said ´I felt good... and yeah...´ It was kind of silly, but he still has a long way to go and lots of time to build his testimony. I hope his Dad who is a really strong catholic (and also a really good cook) will start to listen to the lessons with us now. 

We had a really fun activity with the branch. The ward mission leader planned a talent show with us. A lot of the members sang and danced and performed really funny sketches, and a few people that own businesses across the street came to see what it was all about. I took some great pictures... but the computer doesn´t like my flash drive... :(. Maybe next time.

We also traveled to Ambato to visit a larger mall and a fun place called Mr. Joy. Which is basically a restaurant play place but 10 times larger with laser tag, rock climbing and a bunch of other great things like that, but I forgot my camera, so I didn´t get any pictures. Sorry for the false hope... :P

Also we may be moving. The house we live in has a few problems and isn´t very close to our sector. We found another that seems to be brand new, and is closer to our investigators, but is a little small. We plan to move in and make use of the space we have there. I will miss the small fruit stores that we have near, cause the new house might not have the same options, but I don´t think I will stay here for another change.

I´m very excited to finish out this change really strong and see if I´ll stay or go. (´Should I stay or should I go´ Some 70s or 80´s song that I don´t know the artists)

Well I believe that´s all folks. I´m sorry I´m not very good at sending pictures. I hope you will all forgive me!

Elder Cloward

Zone conference, Baños(Again!!!), and other great stuff.

Mon, Aug 13, 5:13 PM

Hola todos!

This week was really great. We had a zone conference and went to Baños with some of the Elder`s in Riobamba. 

In the zone conference we talked a lot about faith and how to improve our studies. When Elder Salazar and I got back we went to visit Alfonso and he returned our Book of Mormon and said he wasn`t interested. After we tried to contact people in the streets but no one was interested. I felt pretty down, especially since most of my work here in Riobamba has been finding and dropping investigators who seem really great at the beginning but aren`t interested in progressing. The next day in my study of the Book of Mormon, I read in Alma chapter 37, where Alma gives the plates to his son Helaman. I spent about 20 minutes finding principles in this seemingly less important chapter. In the chapter we learn that the Lord works in his own time, and if we magnify our calling and play our part we can help move along the grand work that God is doing. That was powerful to me, because although I may not have helped all people to come to Christ through baptism, I have planted a lot of seeds in the hearts of the people. I am glad to play a part in that.

Josè pasted his baptismal interview this week so now all we have to do is fill up the font. 

We also taught more to the young teenagers Joseph and Michael, and they are reading the Book of Mormon!!! Joseph is already in 1 Nephi 8. The both of them plan to have a competition to see who can read it faster, and the best part is we only invited them to read the book. They are soooo excited to learn all they can about our message. We also met with their mom and she has been having lots of questions about which church she should be a part of. They are catholics, but not very active, and she has been really confused. We invited her to do what Joseph Smith did and pray to know what she should do. They are really excited.

The group that we went with. Elder Wilson, Cosio, Ochoa, Salazar, Brown, and me.

In Baños we went to the great waterfall (pailon del diablo) again and got completely soaked.

After we found a place to fish trout and have them cook it for you. It was a blast, but I`m not very good at fishing, so I didn`t catch anything... :(

We had such a great time with all of the Elders and we are seeing a lot of success here. I am so glad to play my part in this great work

My companion is showing how many months he has left on his fingers... :P

Elder Cloward