Singed Eyebrows

So the thoughts I had to when shaking Elder Hollands hand were similar to what Agnus said in Dispicable Me. "Its so fluffy Im GONNA DIE!".  But my words were more like this: "He´s so Elder Holland Im GONNA DIE!".  It was a really good conference with Elder Holland.  He talked a lot about how are callings are Apostolic and the importance of the task of saving a human soul.  And let me just say, Elder Holland is WAY more animated when he isnt speaking in General conference.  Slapped the podium like 5 times, said the words "stupid" and "idiot" (No Gma, he didnt say the whole phrase "stupid idiot" :) ).  But the main message that he shared was having to do with the fact that this is the only time in my life to have this calling full time.  I need to eat, sleep, drink, think, bleed, puke, and dream missionary work.  Elder Holland only shook our hand and wanted to know our name and where we were from, and from that he told us straight up that it was equivalent to a 20 min interview...That was a shokcer for sure.


We had strict rules to not speak to Elder Holland unless he spoke to us.  He didnt talk to many, but did to me.  He said "Hows that red hair doing?"  I think he just notice by sun-burnt head from the new hair cut :)

Good news! Jessica is going to be baptized this Saturday!  She passed the interview, but didnt come to church. We were freaking out and wondering where she was, but we worked it all out.  She just had a little family problem.  We are goin to her house every day this week to make sure all is well.  She is loving the Bookf of Mormon and cant wait for Saturday.  Can I get an AMEN?!

We were walking down the main street the other day, and my Elder Ureta sees two girls in their 20´s walk out of a store and suggets that we go contact them.  I agree and as we get closer, one of them says "Que mas loco?" or in other words " sup bro" in a MANS voice.  Cross that off the To Do list: Contact cross-dressers.

Its been a week with the usual highs and lows, but in the words of Elder Holland: "Salvation was NEVER easy."  I know this church is true and without a shadow of a doubt that the 12 Apostles are living Witnesses of Jesus Christ.  I believed it before, but I KNOW it now.  

Just started pouring rain.  Yippee.  Have a good week!

Elder Lomeli

Elder Holland and Elder Lomeli

Bridge of death we have to cross almost every night.  Hate bridges.

Hey. Hey you.  Yeah you. No, not you! You!  Yeah you with the face!  Gonna eat that donut?

Ladeez and Gents its been a good week.  To start off, Ive been having lots of weird dreams lately, but one of them was of my companion.  I dreamt that he was in the movie Planet of the Apes and the main monkey had his face....Never gonna forget that one:)

The investigator Jessica keeps coming to church and is progressing for her date on the 27th of this month!  We are super excited for her.  Every time we ask her about her baptism she says that she is still 100% sure.  We just have a few principles left to teach her then she can have her interview!  We were a little bit saddened though becuase Melissa live literally 5 feet outside of our sector and we cant teach her...We had to pass the reference :/  She´ll be baptized for sure though.

Since we are working in two wards we get the chance to work with lots of less actives.  I think we are working with about 30 or so.  About 15 of them come to church, but because of the size of our sector we cant teach them all in one week.  March is going to be a killer month here in Comite and Collaloma.  There are some investigators that are in the process of knowing the church, so we hope to see some success there.  Oh! and we may have found the family of 4!  We found them contacting and the dad let us in after some persuading.  The return appointment fell, but we made another one for this Thursday!  Hope its them!

So the sacrifice thing we are doing is taking a toll a bit. I now know why they call it a sacrifice.  Me and Elder Ureta wake up way early and are always tired.  Somethimes I study standing up.  I also found a good use for the nerf guns mom sent me for Christmas!  When Elder Ureta falls asleep, I go RAMBO on him!  Its the funniest thing ever :)

Elder Holland is already here. Gonna see him Wednesday.  Chau Chau!

Elder Lomeli

Milk in a...bag?

Car = Our Dream

Sopapo

"Elder: Hermana ___________, will you follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized?
Hermana: Is that the answer you got?
Elder: Yeah.....
Hermana: Look, youre great guys, and spending time together to learn this stuff has been wonderful,                but as far as a baptism is concerned, I havent gotten the same answer.
Elder: Who have you been praying to?
Hermana: Im kidding, of course Ill get baptized!"

Well, if you cant find out by this little quote, we got some people headin to the waters of baptism!  Jessica is 18 and this Sunday we did a tour of the chapel with her.  We left her to pray in the sacrament room, and she was in there for about 15 minutes.  When we went in, she said that she had been done praying for about 10 minutes and started to cry.  She recieved an answer that the church is true and is preparing herself to be baptized the 27th of February.  The other investigator is Melissa who is 20.  She just moved in from another ward and was taking the missionary lessons there.  She is super prepared and determined to be baptized.  She is also preparing herself for the 27th of February.

We have also started up again this faith in February thing.  This year I have chosen to sacrifice something very important to me: sleep.  I have chosen to sacrifice 1 hour of sleep and use that hour as an additional personal study hour.  So this year, we hope to see lots of miracles in March, becuase last year there werent that many baptisms or rescues.  Itll change :)

Right now in all South America is the holiday CARNAVAL.  Its pretty much a three day long water, oil, flour, dirt, paint fight.  So we need to be in our house unless we have set appointments, but we still get our share on the fun.  We may or may not have dumped a bucket of water on some teenage boys walking home from school.  But.....we missed.  Epic fail.  Oh and I also learned the hard way this week why we should always bring our own toilet paper in our bags.  No Hermana, Im not going to us leaves you took out of the forest in front of your house. 

The Elder Holland countdown is at 9 days! 

I learned this week that in Chile the word for plunger is "sopapo".  The Elder said its just cuz of the sound it makes.  So true.

Elder Lomeli


Just ONE of the many massive hills in our sector
We make bus drivers mad and pay with 25 pennies 😏

¿Mande?

Fams and Frenz,

Kind of a long week let me tell ya!  Well to make it short, we were on our feet almost all day Friday, Saturday, and Sunday looking for that family of 4.  We werent able to have too much luck.  But, there were a few investigators that came to church and we were able to make citas to go and visit them.  Lets hope that goes somewhere!  Its a little rough, but we wont surrender.

So, a little more on Elder Ureta.  He is from Huancayo Peru and is 23.  He has 7 brothers and sisters and is the first missionary in his family.  He is a convert of about 9 years.  He is always really happy and smiling.  I think its going to be a good change.  Another good thing is that he likes encebollado, so we`ve eaten that three times this week.  Not as good as in the coast, but still delicious.

I was studying a lot this week about the attribute of Chist: Virtue.  The famous scripture of virute is in D&C 121:45-46 and that has been my ponderizing scripture for the week.  We need to strive to have clean and pure thoughts always and to be worthy to stand in the presence of God at all times.  If we are virtuous, we will have confidence in the presence of God.  

Sorry this is a short letter, but not a whole lot happened this week.  We need to go on a treasure hunt to find Jessica and Ricardo becuase we havent seen them in forever.  The hunt begins!

Elder Lomeli

Me and Elder Ureta

Cotopaxi`s gettin hot