Monday, December 7, 2009

Hows everybody doing? Im doing pretty well. We had a really good week. On saturday we had the baptisms of Maricela and Sharon (a mom and her daughter). They werent able to get confirmed because we had stake conference but they will next week for sure. IT was a really neat baptism. I got to baptize sharon (the 10 year old little girl) and she was just adorable. Shes like a super genius kid who reads and is the top of her grade but she also loves to put on shorts, a ball cap, and place a nasty game of soccer and shes not bad at it either. Right now they dont live in our sector but theyre moving soon because shes getting married with a member in our ward. So that was a lot of fun. Then we had stake conference on sunday where pres johns and his wife spoke about missionary work which of course was greatly appreciated. Then last night we had the christmas devotional which was ok. Its not the same in spanish. The music of course was great but the talks left me desiring a little more. Its just better in english. So i hope you enjoyed it!

What else, we had zone conference on friday which was fun. Pres Johns talked about how Ecuador is a chosen land and we are teaching the descendants of Lehi and we`re fulfilling book of mormon prophesies. Its something that not everyone gets to do. Missionaries in California and Las Vegas cant claim that. Just south american missionaries. :). He was talking about that because we just finished the BOM as a mission. We read the entire book in two changes (like three months) and we marked every time Jesus talked, all the names of Jesus, attributes of Christ, and any form of doctrine (so we basically marked everything). It was really interesting. I learned a lot. Im reading it again now with the manual you sent me and im specifically studying the use of remembrance/memory. While i was reading it this past time i realized the prophets talked a lot about remembering, which ive tried to apply to my missionary work. When we visit less active members we just invite them to remember their baptism, how they felt, and why they got baptized. Thats basically what the BOM prophets did, so thats what we`re doing. But reading it and marking this past time got me fired up to read it again now with the manual!

Ok, so im sending some pictures. Two are from baptisms and the other is when we prepared a bunch of humanitarian aid bags for the families whose houses burned down in our sector. That picture is a little blurry because there was no power so we were doing it by candle power. :)

Ok, well thats about all thats happened this week. Its been a pretty chill week. It is getting really hot though. We had days in the 100s. And the worst part (well for all the other missionaries) is that it doesnt really cool off during the night so its hard to sleep in the hottest humidity. Suckers! I love AC! But we cant stay in the house all day and the mid day sun is to die for. WOOW how it burns. I love ecuador! Ok, well im gonna get going. Thanks for the letter and the packages and the family file name! Youre the best mission mom ever! I love you all!

Elder Irwin II