Lots of meetings, getting punched in the eye by a cat, and "again!"

Hola todos!

We had a really great week. We found a lot of really great people and went to 3 meetings.

Tuesday we went to verifications, when they check up on the trainers and the trainies. Thursday we had district meeting and Friday we had zone conference. We hardly had time in the mornings this week. 

This week we met the family of Jonatan. His wife is super prepared to hear from us. She really wants to fix the relationship with her husband. She said she would take the Book of Mormon to her work and read a lot. She has a son named Julian who we need to get to know a little bit better. But their  year old daughter is really silly. She reminds me a lot of my sister Anatolia. She is super smart, and when we went to pick the family up to go to church, and she say us, she said *gasp* "again?!" We are really excited to keep teaching the family. 

The Mora Puentes family passed their baptismal interviews! We will have a baptism this week! 

We are running into a problem with some of our investigators. They are really prepared to hear us, but aren´t married, and in order to be baptized, people need to obey the law of chastity, which prohibits husband and wife from living together without being married. What makes things more complicated is that the investigators are usually refugees from Venezuela, and they need more documentation in order to get married. We will have to see what we can do.

This week, we were going to see Mauricio, who was baptized  weeks ago, and we found his mom near his house. She told us to leave a bag of rice with Mauricio when we found him. But when we knocked on Mauricio´s door, he wasn´t there. We were stuck outside with a bag of rice. We decided we would leave it in the window. But Mauricio has a really crazy cat named Francis that loves to play rough with claws and teeth. When I climbed up a little bit to leave the rice in the window, Francis punched me in the eye! Luckily he didn´t use claws, but it still hurt a little bit. I´ve learned here in the mission that I love animals a lot. Just maybe not when they punch me in the eye.

Well I don´t have much more to say.

Hasta la próxima! 

Elder Cloward

Some Photos of Josh With His New Companion

Here are a couple of photos of Josh with his new companion that he is training.  This were originally posted on his mission Facebook page.

Halfway gone, Almost.

Hola todos!

The title is to say that tomorrow is the halfway point in my mission. Or that the glass is already half full, or half empty, depending how you look at it. It makes me rather sad that I only have 1 year left. But we will make it better than last year. 

This week we met a few more great people.

We were finishing lunch one day and when we stepped outside, someone from a third story yelled at us saying "Yo si quiero!" or ´yes I want that!´ I asked him, what do you want, and he said ese alimento. Or that food, meaning food for the soul. We talked a bit with him (his name is Jonatan) and he really wants to get closer to God so that he can preach the gospel like us. Except he wants to go to the United States to preach in English. He is really interesting, but has really strong desires to follow what we teach.

Also we talked to a woman called Marisol, who said that she was interested in our message especially because we talked about the chance that she had to see her dad after this life, even though she never met him. The doctrine of family history is really powerful.

The Escobar family sadly decided that for obligations are going to attend a different church that helped the father of the family escape his addiction. I know that family will be baptized, it just isn´t their time yet.

The Conforme family hasn´t been reading the Book of Mormon recently, and because of that they don´t want to progress more. We are going to work really hard this week so they can read.

The Mora Puentes family is also doing really well. They will have there interviews this week!

For P-day, we learned how to cook menestra, which is a way of preparing beans here. Here are a few pictures.

 It was really tasty, but I almost died when I was cutting up the onion.

Menestra, rice, avocado, patacones (a type of banana fried and squashed), and higado (cow liver) REALLY TASTY! 

My family sent me peach rings!

Well I beli-beli-belive that that´s all folks. Nos vemos!

Elder Cloward

The Head of a Guinea Pig

Hola todos!

This week flew by, but I definitely enjoyed it.

We met a really great family (Mora, Puentes) of Venezuelans who attended church last week. They are really excited about everything and are going to be baptized in February. 

Also the Escobar family came to church yesterday. We told them all about family history work and they were really excited to hear about it. They are looking like they are going to keep progressing a lot. 

The Conforme family also is progressing a lot. I don´t remember if I talked about them in the last emails, but the father of the family was struggling with an addiction a few months back but has come out of it and wants to join the church because his family are all members. His wife also really loves the church and is willing to get married so the both of them can be baptized. Yesterday they served us cuy, or Guinea Pig for dinner. I really loved it, enough that when I finished my piece, and wanted more they gave me the head. I don´t know if eat Guinea pig brains is on any ones bucket list, but I completed it. =P

We spent a lot of money for p-day. My companion didn´t have any sweaters or coats so we went to buy some. I bought a poncho (insert picture here) and another sweater because in these days recently it has been really cold and rainy. When it is cold in Quito, the cold goes right through your clothes and reaches the bones. It is not very fun. 

The man we found to buy coats was a member of the church. He talked to us a little bit about how he was a millionaire, but in the things of God. When we are with God, he said, we are rich. It was nice to find someone so happy.

I´ve begun to grow a lot more in love for the people here in La Gasca. Once again it will be really hard to leave when that time comes. Luckily we should have 2 more months here in Quito.

Well I don´t have a lot more to say. I hope you all have a great week, and remember that God loves you a lot, and when you are with him, you are rich.

Elder Cloward

Agotados

Hola todos!

Training is really, really great! My companion is called Elder Meza. He is from Guayaquil. He has a really strong testimony and when he teaches, he does so with the spirit. This week he and I worked really hard. Every day we got to the house tired. It feels great to see the fruits of hard work. We´ve found a couple of really great families to teach. Actually, almost all of the people we are teaching are families. I am excited for all of them. 

The Escobar family we found in the street. Their three year old son was running happily to his house and we decided to talk to them. They let us in their house and really loved what we shared. Sadly they couldn't come to church yesterday, but they are really interested.

The Silva family are Venezuelans. We really only have been teaching Ramon who is the dad of the family. He was a member of a different church and had a lot of doubts about what we were teaching, but after a powerful lesson of testimony, he decided he would keep asking God if what we are teaching is true. It is really amazing.

The Condor family came to church!!! Well the mom (Maria) and her son (Mathias) They had a really good time. I´m excited to see them progress more.

We have a lot of work to do here, and the members keep finding more for us. his Sunday 3 new people showed up at church, and we didn´t even say anything. Wow!

For P-day we played volleyball and soccer just in the morning and went shopping in the afternoon. It´s funny because it rained today, but only when we had finished playing sports. God was nice to us.

Well the rest of the post will be lots of pictures. Enjoy!

Short Christmas Message

Merry Christmas everyone!

It is amazing to me how much Christmas opens the hearts of the people here in Ecuador. On Friday we went caroling as a ward and a lot of people came to their doors a little skeptical, but when we started singing they all were very happy and willing to listen to what we had to say. It was great!

Mauricio is doing really well. This week he is baptized!

We didn´t catch Doménica this week because she left for the holidays... =(. 

But we did find a really great family. When we gave them the light the world cards, they said that in the morning when they woke up they saw a star in the sky just like the one on the card. They were really excited to see that God was looking out for them. We will see how they progress as things continue. 

Things have been a little bumpy recently as I have been trying to overcome my weaknesses. But I´ve learned a couple of great things in the process. First of all, we have the potential to be the heroes to all of the people we pass by in the mission. It is our choice to be those heroes or not. Are we 100% heroes or only 75%? Second of all, it is impossible to overcome weaknesses on our own. We need to put a lot of trust in God and he will help us.

We´ve been eating a ridiculous amount of food recently for Christmas. We went to one family to eat dinner, and then the owner of our department (also a member of the church) invited us to eat a little tamal, but when we finished with that, she gave us KFC. So we finished the day really full. Also today we bought some breakfast in the street, then ate breakfast with some members, then ate a really big lunch. It feels like thanksgiving.

I told you all last week that I would send pictures, but I don´t have my camera... oops... =P

Well that might be all for this week. 

Love you all! Merry Christmas again!

Elder Cloward