My companion prepared a surprise birthday party behind my back.

Hola Amigos! 

So this week was fun, we were able to teach Carmen this week about the word of wisdom, which is God's commandment for health. It was a good one for her because she struggles with diabetes and she was able to commit to receive more blessing from God for her health. She is really happy and every time she talks about her baptism she has a huge grin on her face. 

We also taught Kevin and he's doing really great. He has huge desires to come closer to God.

This week we met with an old family that we hadn't gotten to see in a long time the Padilla family. They were very happy to see us and offered to give us crabs this Friday.

Also I was given a surprise talk on Sunday right before sacrament meeting started, so I scrambled together some ideas I had been thinking about Christmas and shared some stories about some people I had taught before. I like speaking in sacrament meeting. It helps me realize how important the work I've done here has been.

I Also did a lot of fun things for my birthday this week. We bought a lot of food for lunch at a seafood place, and we went to the chapel expecting that a member would give us a reference there but being surprised by a birthday party my companion had shared behind my back. I am very grateful to have Elder Williams as my last companion. He and I understand the mission and life very similarly and he hasn't had as much success in his mission as I have, but he has definitely helped me to have a better outlook on life which I appreciate a lot. 

I love Elder Williams!

Chao!

Elder Cloward

Here are a few pictures from the week.

Understanding agency, an important part of God's plan

Ali chishi tucui llactapuracuna

We had a really good week.

We spent today in a monkey park with caged monkeys and also free monkeys that were just walking around and would jump onto your back or climb on your arms. It was fun. 

We also received a lot of referrals from friends. 

We met a new person named Kevin. He was told about the church by a member who plays volleyball near his house. He is struggling a lot in his life and is looking for more help to get closer to God, and He was soo willing to come to church with us this past Sunday. 

Also we met some family members of a less active member whose name is Nety. Her nephew is living with her and likes the church but isn't interested in making any big decisions yet. 

Carmen who I talked about last week has a date now for December 28th. She was really happy to accept the idea of getting baptized and hopes God helps her with her health and other life problems. I liked seeing her smile when she said that she would prepare to be baptized.

Also the Zambrano family is wanting to help their daughter Griseidi get baptized on that same day.

Sad news, Jazmin and her kids didn't attend church again this week so her baptismal date fell through. She really wants to change, but hasn't yet decided to do it. Although it makes us as missionaries sad, people can choose what they want to do in their lives. This idea of choice is known as agency or moral agency. Agency may be one of the most important parts of God's plan. He created this earth and all of the things on it. He set rules that if followed would get us the most wonderful blessings, but he let us choose if we wanted the blessings and when we are willing to be obedient and qualify for them. Life without agency would be pointless, because everyone would have to wear the color red, eat waffles for breakfast and follow God. Having everyone follow God is not a bad goal, but we lose a lot of personal development if we are obligated to do so. So I am sad that people don't always use their agency well, but I am sure grateful that God lets us choose what we want so we can grow. 

Nos vemos!

Elder Cloward

THE TRUNKY FEELING IS NOT GOOD

Hola Amigos

So this week was good, but I was sick for a lot of it and it was hard to not let the evil monsters of trunkiness to get over me. I'm fine now though. =P

So the person we met with drinking problems last week just kinda disappeared which is a little sad, but if he really wants to follow God he will find the missionaries.

Jazmin didn't come to church this week, so we'll have to see what happened and help her to keep talking steps to get closer to God. Her children are really good at helping her do what's right. She was just about to drink coffee when her children stopped her, so I think we are making good progress.

Also I talked a few weeks ago about a person named Carmen. She's come to church now twice and she invited her daughter in law Katerine to also listen to us. They both have lots of excitement to hear about God and to do what's right. Carmen has lots of questions for us this week.

We went to baños again for our free day today. This time we went to some tree houses with big swings high in the mountains.

Here are a few pictures.

Two years have gotten to me. I'm sick

Hola todos!

This week was really busy. We had interviews on Wednesday and we had to stay in ambato for the afternoon. I forgot how cold and dry the air felt there. On Thursday we had zone conference and got back to the sector at about 7:00. Then on Friday and Saturday we had service in the morning as we helped members and nonmembers clean a house lot and move a bunch of rocks. 

Finally on Sunday a member invited us to go to her house to teach her drunk ex husband. She sent him away to Quito because of his drinking problems, and he wandered back after two years. He wasn't very receptive on Sunday because he was drunk, but we went by and visited him today in our P-day and he was really really interested in stopping his bad habits and getting married with the member. I feel blessed that we could help him make the first step to that on our preparation day. I'll keep you posted on how it goes.

Jazmín came to church this week. It looks like she really wants to be baptized because we didn't even visit her this week and she came to church anyway. I feel blessed for being able to teach such prepared people.

Although all the craziness and working for two years has gotten me feverous and tired. I'm frustrated that it has to be happening in my last month of my mission, but my body ́s imperfect and it can ́t keep up with what my mind wants to do. Oof. I'll have to take it easy in the part of my mission where I would like to take it so much harder.

Here are a few pictures 

ñuncamunani!

Elder Cloward

Rainbows, Purple Potatoes, White tigers, and quichua

Ali chishi 

This week was really great. I personally feel that my energies have been down. In other words, I find myself more and more tired as the days pass. I was feeling discouraged about my lack of energy when God sent this.

I felt like it was a bit of a message to us about how we were doing a marvelous work and he was proud of it. 

Also this week I cooked some chinese potatoes, which are like potatoes but kinda purple.

This week we met a few new really great people.

Gonzalo and Diego are a father and a son that we met this week while we were contacting. Diego has lots of faith in God and loved hearing our message. Gonzalo was looking for the true church for a long time but didn't find anything so he kinda gave up. But we found him!

Also we were waiting for a member of the church who was going to join us in a visit and decided to eat some salchipapas. The most common fast food in Ecuador. We started talking to the vendor and she told us all about her interest to follow God due to the fact he had saved her life. We went back later and she came to church on sunday! She reminds me a lot of Marialena who is a person that I baptized a year ago in Santo Domingo. I'm excited to keep teaching her. 

Also this was Jazmin's last week in her beauty class so she's coming to church this week! 

We are about to see a lot of success with them and a few others so I'm pretty happy about it.

Today for P-day we went to the zoo. Here was the coolest animal there.

And here is a picture of my companion and I being awesome

That's about all folks 

Ñuncanunami

Elder Cloward

The coffee robbers

Hola Amigos!

We had a really good week. Elder Williams was sick for a part of it, and due to the holiday (Day of the Dead) a good lot of the people we were planning on teaching were visiting their ancestors in cemeteries. So we weren't able to find a lot of new people this week, but we did teach about the word of wisdom to Jazmin. The word of wisdom is God's modern law of health given to a modern day prophet. Members of the church and those preparing to be baptized abstain from consuming alcohol, tobacco, drugs, tea, and coffee. After we taught about it, she said "I know that drinking coffee was bad for my health but I didn't know it was a sin. She gave us her bag of fresh coffee grounds. That is the first time someone has been so willing to keep the commandments that they have given up their vice. We are the coffee robbers. =P

It reminds me of a passage of scripture I read this week. In Alma, a group of missionaries leave to preach to a wicked people and through their preaching they get this to happen.

7 For they became a righteous people; they did lay down the weapons of their rebellion, that they did not fight against God any more, neither against any of their brethren. 

All of us in life have to give up our vices, and I am really proud of Jazmín for doing it.

That's all folks!

Elder Cloward

he lighting on this picture wasn't that great, but I've got the coffee bag in there. And we are both wearing our ponchos. 

hhhoney

Hola Amigos!

This week was great! 

My new companion is named Elder Williams. He's probably the funniest companion I've had so far. He can talk like over a dozen fictional characters from movies and shows. My favorite is his winnie the pooh voice. "Hmm Elder Cloward, do you have some hhhoney?" With lots of stress on the hhhhhhoney.

Also when we get back home in the evening he is a walking radio and just sings every single song that comes to his head. It's fun. I think his goofiness will help me to be a lot happier

This week we had two grande miracles.

First Jazmin accepted a baptismal date. It's a little far out (in December), but she felt the spirit really strong about it.

Then we were out walking when a man (Giovanni) stopped us looking for work. A lot of times here people talk to us and ask for money or things like that because we look like rich americans, but he was just looking for work so we told him to come to church on Sunday and he could find some people to help him with that. Nobody new came to church for us except HIM! He said that he was out walking and a member also invited him to church so he decided to come and he liked it a lot. We set a lesson to see him on wednesday in the morning and we also saw him randomly today. God just put him in our path. 

A person who we were teaching gave us a basket of fruit and vegetables that she had traded for deodorant and other hygiene products in a jungle village. How cool is that? 

Also I forgot to take a picture with my companion so here we are.

And with that I'll be finished for the day.

Chau!

Elder Cloward

Staying in the jungle maybe till the end...

Hola Amigos!

All of the problems here in Ecuador seem to have helped us out. Even though we couldn't go out teaching God seemed to play his parts in helping people change their lives this week.}

We've been teaching a family of a single mom and her three kids (Jazmin, the mom, and Alex Jordi and Jadelín). The oldest son is best friends of the branch president's son, and has come to church quite a bit, and when we went to teach them this week the spirit was really present and they all were really excited to keep learning and come to church!

Also a while ago we found a family of 4 (Familia Padilla) and they showed a lot of interest at the beginning but it was hard to meet with them often. This week we taught the parents and the mother Vanesa said she felt chills as we taught her. She recognized it as the spirit. It was great!

The Zambrano family who have the 9 year old unbaptized daughter also promised to be better about visits and the mom said a really powerful prayer at the end of our lesson. 

The sad part about this all is that Elder Gomez got changes this week. We were both thinking that I would leave the sector and he would stay to direct it, but we were surprised to hear that he was getting changed to Quito and I am staying here, perhaps till the end. 

I am going to miss Elder Gomez a lot. He may as well be the best companion I've had here in Ecuador.  He's shown such great love to me and all of the people we have been teaching. I love him a lot, but he has finished his training and needs to go to other places now.

Today for p-day we found a place to buy jungle spears and stuff like that and because 2 of us four elders here in Puyo are leaving we took a lot of pictures.

Here are a few

That's all folks.

See you next week!

Elder Cloward

After 11 days of being cooped up, I learned that I am really bad at monopoly

Hola amigos!

Well I feel like there isn't a whole lot to tell you about this week, because the whole week we were cooped up in our house waiting further instructions with our leaders. We were with the other Elders here in Puyo so at least we had some company, but every day was just about the same.

Wake up, read the scriptures, cook something for breakfast, read the scriptures some more or maybe go onto the roof. Eat lunch, play a board or card game. Go to the roof again, and eat dinner and play a few more games. I was impressed by how patient we all were with everything.

Luckily, yesterday the president of Ecuador was able to meet with the angry indigenous people and make some deals so in this week we will be working like normal again (hopefully).

Through all of the process I learned a lot about what it means to trust God. This weekend, the entire mission fasted, or went without eating or drinking anything with the purpose of healing this wounded country. In my prayers, I said something like this. 'God I know I'm imperfect. I know that my work hasn't always been the best, or I haven't always been the most obedient. But I've tried my best and I will try even harder if you open Ecuador again for work.'

My work now still won't be perfect, because I am imperfect, but it will be a lot more complete, and I will come home even happier than if the stop in Ecuador wouldn't have happened.

Here's a goofy video of the smoke from the tire burning that they were doing in downtown.

Elder Cloward

Well things have been....... fun.....

Well I'm not sure if I will get time to write later on so I'm going to write something short now. 

On Thursday, due to rising gas prices in Ecuador all the taxi drivers and bus drivers stopped all of the roads and blocked up passages. After the district meetings the missionaries couldn't go back to their sectors and between the 2 companionships in Puyo we had to babysit 4 missionaries each for two days until they opened up the passage again. These past few days (since Thursday) we've had to stay in our house because they say that the indigenous peoples are also rising up for other problems that they have. We haven't been able to work since Thursday, and I feel like we are in some kind of apocalypse. But don't worry too much, I'm not physically hurt, just mentally stressed because of lost progress on the investigators not being able to see general conference and I'm really bored. If I can write again today I'll fill in some details. 

Elder Cloward

This is what a missionary looks like when he is cooped up for a few days. =P

It has been raining a lot

Hola Amigos!

We had a really good week. It ended with 3 baptisms in our district, and 10 in the zone in the month of September, and for the first time since our mission president has been in Ecuador, we had 110 baptisms in the month of September. It was really incredible. 

We had a baptism in our sector. Deysi was baptized and was really happy about it. I love seeing how the gospel changes people, and she had an errand to run on Sunday with her mom whose is not a member but preferred to receive some hard criticism from her mom and receive the Holy Ghost than not get it. It was happy.

I have been worried in these past few days because we don't have a lot more people to teach. But this last week we had two new people come to church. One of them was a young man who is best friends with the branch president's son. And the other one was a young woman named Noemí who my companion found while I was doing an interview in Tena. She is really excited and is looking for more peace in her life. 

It has been raining a lot here recently. 

Monday it rained really hard after I wrote to my family and we had to spend the rest of the night in the rain. Saturday it rained really hard and we had to cross the river that was running through the middle of the street to get where we needed to go, and it rained today. It has been pretty crazy. 

Well that's about all for now. 

Elder Cloward

Miracles, and a bugs in my stomach

Hola Amigos!

We had a really good week. We haven't really been able to find a lot of new people this week, but we have found a few opportunities, and we saw a miracle in the progress of someone.

First of all, Maria Belen was baptized this week. We are really happy for her. She has always been worried to attend the class with the other young women in church, but her family members shoved her in this time, and she was fine in there.

Also Deysi her aunt is getting baptized this week. She is really prepared for it and I know God will bless her a lot. It has been hard to talk with her really well because she is always with all of her family when we teach them, and that makes it hard to teach, but she is really good about completing homework we leave and whenever we ask her how she feels about baptism, she says "great!"

Last week we met a new family. Alí is a member of the church but doesn't go because his wife, Magdalena didn't want to yet. Last week when we met with them, Magdalena said that she didn´t believe that Sunday was the sabbath that is written in the scriptures. But this last Friday when we went to visit them, she told us, "I got my answer. I was trusting my own knowledge and not trusting in God." She came to church on Sunday. It was incredible how the spirit worked to help her.

On Saturday, we planned a ward activity, and 90 people came. We were expecting less than 80, maybe 60? But we had to buy more refreshments at the end. It was really exciting because a lot of members brought friends. A Venezuelan sister in the church brought her daughter and grand-children that aren't members, so this week I hope to meet them and teach them.

We played soccer today for p-day for the first time in a while. A lot of the missionaries were really rusty, and afterwards we played a really intense game of Phase10. It was a pretty good breakday.

However, I feel like I've got some bugs in my stomach. I think I may need to watch what I'm eating a little bit more. I'll update you guys on that this week.

Elder Cloward

I know how to kill and prepare a pig now

Hola Amigos!

We had a lot of great successes this week.

First, Luis was baptized.

It was so special to me to see him come out of the water, look up and laugh joyfully for the decision he had made. I felt God's presence really strongly there. Luis is going to do lots of other great things now that he is a member of the church.

Maria, the shy girl we are teaching passed her baptismal interview and will be baptized on Saturday. It's exciting!

Her aunt Daisy came to church this week and has been reading. It's a little difficult to teach them because when we visit there are a lot, and they sometimes feel nervous to answer our questions because they don't want to mess up in front of their family members. 

We weren't able to meet with Griseidi this week but we have made plans to meet with her this week. 

Overall, the district here is doing well with a lot of people preparing to be baptized in the upcoming weeks. 

Lastly, we went with some members of the ward to kill and sell a pig on the farm they had. It was really quite cool to see how it all worked out. We got there at 6:30 to kill it, and by 9:30 it was already almost all sold. I have a few videos, but I'm sure you guys won't want to see some of them, so I'll just send a short of of them blowtorching the pig.

That's all folks.

Elder Cloward

Have you ever been stung by a caterpillar?

Hola Amigos!

This week was pretty solid. We found a few great new people and have a lot of people that are preparing to be baptized, but a lot of them still struggle with coming to church.

This week while in divisions, my companion met Jazmin and her son Alex who were references from the family of the branch president. The missionaries who were here a while back wrote the information in the area book but never got in contact with them. They really have liked the church when they have visited it and are interested in learning more. 

Also we taught Griseidi about repentance this week. We bought a packet of fruit juice, and took a small amount of bleach in a bottle. When we told her about sins, we put the juice in the cup and told her that our sins make the water dark, but Jesus can clean it out like bleach. She was amazed by how the water changed colors so quickly with the bleach.

This week we also had to move the baptismal date of Daisy who is a family member of Juan Pablo. She wants to get baptized to help her family but has a hard time coming to church.

Maria, Juan Pablo's cousin, is planing on getting baptized next week, and said that she was a little worried about going to church because she didn't like going to Young Women's. She's rather shy, and doesn't like making new friends. We told her that as a young woman, she goes to that class to better serve the other young women in the ward. I think she understood that God needed her to go, not that it was just a church rule.

Luis passed his baptismal interview, so we have a baptism this weekend too. It's a little crazy how many we have lined up.

This week while teaching a lesson, I felt something crawling on my neck. It was a spiny caterpillar, so I quickly grabbed it and threw it off, but I think I should've just flicked it because it stung me and the rest of the week my fingers were swollen. Have you ever been stung by a caterpillar?

Well that's all for this week. We had changes, and we are both staying here. But a really great young man from this ward left today to go to Chile in his mission. Here's a photo when we said goodbye.

Elder Cloward

PS - Don't forget that you can email Elder Cloward directly at the following address:

joshua.cloward@missionary.org

Seeing the prophet!, and a baptism! (zoo)

A lot went on in the past two weeks that I couldn't write, so I'm going to load this email. 

We had an incredible opportunity to hear from God's prophet this week. In every dispensation, God calls a prophet to direct and bless his people. This week we saw Russel M. Nelson and I felt the Spirit stronger than I had in a long time

After wards we had a zone conference where a couple with specialty in stress came and gave us advice with how to mannage it. I didn't feel like I understood everything that they were trying to say, but they sure were excited to teach us. One thing I did understand was called a burn journal. In one side of the page, you write all of the negative thoughts and fears that you have and on the right you write the positive thoughts to combat them. I tried it and God taught me a few things about the errors I had in my thinking.

Also this weekend we had a baptism!

Juan Pablo was baptized and his family were all there. This sunday, they took up the whole back row! His cousin and aunt (Maria and Daisy) are also working towards baptism. When it was time for Juan Pablo to bear his testimony, he said "I know that my sins have been forgiven." It was really powerful.

Also, we met another kid from a family like that named Luis. He has a lot of energy and was about to get baptized but his mom sent him to spend vacations in the jungle. Now that he's back he wants to get baptized. It's exciting!

Lastly, there is a less active family that were really strong in the church in Quito but haven't been in a while. They live here now, and their 9 year old daughter (Griseidi) is in the baptism line too. I feel blessed to play a big part of the lives of the people in Puyo. 

Here are a few pictures. We went to a zoo today for preparation day. They had lions and leopards and some pretty silly monkeys. I was happy to see God's creations.

Nos vemos!

Elder Cloward

We had a service with machetes. Fun!

Understanding faith, missionary purpose, Baños waterfall again

Hola Amigos!

This week was pretty good. Although because of small inconveniences, we didn't have any people attending church this week. That is always a very stressful moment as a missionary because we are concerned for the salvation of other people and we often try to force them to do what we want them to do when we want them to do it. But God wanted us as people to choose from the beginning what we will do and when we will do it. Our purpose as missionaries is just to teach people the truth and invite them to live it. We can't force them to live it, but we can help them and invite them to live it. The more people we invite, the more will make the decision to come. 

Juan Pablo passed his baptismal interview, but hasn't come to church enough to get baptized yet, so I'll let you all know when that happens.

This week while we were out contacting we found a couple that are wanting to come closer to God. They usually go out jogging in the time that we were heading by, but something told the wife that they needed to stay and go to church (the catholic church). So they were finishing up some work when we dropped by, and they took that as a sign that God was giving them a chance to come closer to God. I'm excited to keep teaching them.

I feel like a lot that has happened this week has brought me to think more about faith. When we have faith we trust God and take steps forward and are willing to accept his will more than our own. My sister got baptized this week and her baptism shows a lot of faith. She was worried, but little by little she was able to enter the font and follow Jesus Christ. I'm happy for her.

Also this week we heard a story from a member of the church here in Puyo. She had been praying that God would help her find a better place to raise her grandchild. Then a return missionary from utah started dating her daughter (the mother of her grandchild) and they got engaged. She was really sad when her daughter and grandson left for Utah, but accepted that as God's answer to her prayers. Her grandson would be raised in a better place. I hope I can trust God and have faith like these two strong examples.

After a year of being too far away, I went to Baños again and we were able to see the great waterfall Pailon del Diablo. 

That´s all folks. Chau!

Elder Cloward

Chichico monkeys, Chicha de yuca, Fish scales, and hitting your head on a wood beam and after on a fridge

Hola Amigos!

Sorry about the long subject. Lot's of fun things happened this week. 

On Tuesday we met a kid named Joseph who was really interested in the message, but his parents have him in another church and they told him to not listen to us. So that was rather sad, but we got to see his three pet monkeys. I didn't get a picture, but you call look them up. They are called chichico monkeys.

Also this week we met some indigenous people. They speak Quechua, and Spanish, but they gave us a drink they make here called Chicha de Yuca. They get yuca, which is kind of like a potato, cook it, smash it, chew it, and spit it out into a bowl and let it ferment for a few days. They told us that the kind they made wasn't fermented yet, but it tasted super weird. 

Later, a family we taught (the family of Jofre) gave us a soup made from water with salt, and fish they had caught that same day in the river by hand, and cooked plantain. The fish was barbecued in a leaf and placed in the water after. Almost all of the fishes had scales and we ate all of the scales bones and everything. It was surprisingly delicious. Sadly Jofre didn't come to church. =(

But Juan Pablo did. He is super excited for his baptism, but his cousin María who was preparing didn't come to church and is losing interest a little bit. We are going to help her out this week. 

Lastly, on Sunday we helped some members move a fridge and I was walking backwards with one of them and my companion on the other side and the other member. I didn't see a big wooden beam and a smaller wire that was wrapped around it and backed into it bonking my head on it and afterwards from whiplash hit my mouth on the fridge. The wire punctured a small hole in my head and I split my lip. It didn't hurt very much, but I'm upset now because of my bumped lip. 

Well that's about all.

Nos vemos!

Elder Cloward

Rain, Sun, humidity, and cold

Hola Amigos.

We had a really good week.

I had the chance to see my old friends that I helped in La Gasca 5 months ago. on Tuesday while I was waiting in Quito. It was great to see them, but some of them had put church things a little to the side and I had to talk
seriously about it with them.

On Wednesday, we met our new companions. Elder Gomez is from Colombia, and is really excited to be here. He is also energetic in his English studies and like talking to me in English a lot. I´m happy to be with him.

Getting used to the new sector has gone smoothly. When we got here there was a nice group of people who were coming to church and getting ready to be baptized.

Juan Pablo and Maria are cousins and family of recent converts who were baptized about 2 weeks ago. They live in a part of the sector that looks really jungly with wooden houses and everything. They are planning on getting baptized on the 24th and 31st.

Jofre lives over there two. He really loves hearing about the gospel. Sadly all of them didn´t come to church on Sunday because it was really rainy and cold. So far in Puyo we've seen heat, cold, rain, and lot's and lot's of humidity.

I'm happy to be here!

Elder Cloward