Semana 50

Hi everyone! I you`re all doing good. We`re doing good here in Chillogallo! This week I`ll reach 13 months. The time has been going by way too fast.

This Satuday we have the baptism of L. She is super excited. Her uncle, who is the one of the counselors in the stake presidency will be baptizing her.

Elder C. Scott Grow in the South America West Area Presidency will be visiting us this week on Saturday. That will be really fun and exciting to hear from him.

Well for now it`s been a challenge finding new investigators to teach.I know that the Lord gives us these challenges in the mission to test our faith and make us stronger. i know that though all the challenges that I`ve faced in the mission, they`ve made a better person and a more devoted and faithful servant of the Lord.

If you haven`t seen it, there`s a video on the church website called "Because of Him." It`s a short but powerful video that talks about what`s possible because of Jesus Christ. It`s a very great video and I invite all of you to watch it and think about how Jesus Christ has helped you in your lives to overcome the challenges of life. Here`s the link:   https://www.lds.org/youth/video/because-of-him?lang=eng     You can probably find it on youtube as well.

Well that`s about all for this week. Hope you all have a great week and be safe. Hope to hear from you all soon!

-Èlder Gòmez

Amo ser misionero :)

Semana 49

Hi everyone! I hope you`re all doing well! We`re doing great here. 

Today we went to the Panecillo. It`s a big hill in the Historic Center of Quito where there is a giant Virgen Mary. We can see it from our sector but it was cool to see it up close in person. The Virgen statue is based on the book of Revelations where it talks about a women with a crown of twelve stars conquering the dragon, which is Satan. On the same site is where Spencer W. Kimball came many years ago to dedicate Ecuador for the preaching of the Gospel.....kind of ironic haha. You can see all of downtown Quito and see pretty much all of the south of Quito from the view of Panecillo. It`s a really popular tourist site so we saw a lot of Americans and other foreigners. Then we went to the Basilica which is really close to Panecillo, which is the second time I went there since the first time I went about 9 months ago. The time has gone by super fast. In the Basilica you can climb up to the top of the towers and it has an excellent view. 

We`ve been receiving a lot more references from the members. The Elders Quorum President (who just reached a year as a member and went to the temple this weekend to get sealed to his wife) and his family presented us to the owner of the apartment he lives in. Her name is B and she is really great. She has a lot of desire to learn more about the Gospel and wants to change her life. 

L didn`t come to church yesterday. She should still be able to have her baptismal date for the 2nd of August if she comes to church next week. She`s still progressing very well. She will have her baptismal interview soon as her baptismal date comes closer.

We`ve been assisting church in the stake center for only three weeks now, but they just announced that we have to go back to our previous chapel due to maintenance that will take place. They are going to add another room to the chapel and fix some things. So we will be going back to our previous chapel for about 2 or 3 months, until they finish the renovations.Our previous chapel is a lot farther than the stake center so hopefully this doesn`t have an affect on the less actives and investigators and members.

Well that`s about all for this week. Hope you all have a great week and be safe. Help the missionaries in your wards. They need your help. They can`t do this work without the help and support of the members and ward leaders.

-Èlder Gòmez

Amo ser misionero :)

Semana 48-Transfer Week

Hi everyone! I hope you`ve all had a great week! We had transfers today and me and Elder Batista are staying here in Chillogallo for another transfer. This will be my third transfer here. In all of my sectors, I`ve stayed for three transfers and I think it`s safe to say that I`ll be in every sector for three transfers for the rest of my mission. haha

Well L is still good for her baptism on the 2nd of August. She is progressing very well and her family is giving her a lot of support. 

We`ve been looking for the less actives in our ward and this week we found four less active families. They all live far away and some in the mountains. A lot of them went inactive a few years ago because the chapel was too far away and cost too much. But last week we moved to the stake center, which is a lot closer for everyone in our ward and costs less to get there. A lot of less actives are coming back to church and it`s really exciting to see them coming back. In our mission, a reactivation is the same as a baptism. To hasten to the work, we need to not only baptize, but also rescue the less actives.

Well that`s about it for this week. Hope you all have a great week! Hope to hear from you all soon. 

-Èlder Gòmez 

Amo ser misionero :)

Semana 47

Hi everyone!! I hope you`ve all had a great week and a happy 4th of July!

Today for p-day, we hiked a volcanoe as a zone. The volcanoe is in a place called Lloa and we had to ride a car to get to the point where we could hike. We were hiking in the clouds! It was really cool but very cold! At the top it was snowing a little bit. At the top of the volcanoe is a virgen called La Virgen de Cita and a lot of people hike to go see this virgen.

L came to church and now has a baptismal date for the 2 of August. She is super happy and excited to be baptized. Her dad who is a return missionary but now less active supports her a ton and has been teaching her and helping her. He has desires to come back to church too, but his job is very complicated and gets very little time off.

We`ve been working with the less acitves and the Work of Salvation to help progress the work. We got 5 less actives to church yesterday. Yesterday, we started asisting church in the stake center which is a whole lot closer and easier to come to church now for us and for many people. A lot of less acitves and others have said that they are going to come back to church now that we are in a chapel closer to Chillogallo.

Since we split our sector, we lost a lot of investigators and people to teach. So we have very little right now and have been focusing a ton on finding people. The first time this happened to me in my first zone, we lost a lot of people too, but through our efforts we were able to find a lot of people to teach, so I know we can do the same in too. We`re going to focus a lot more on less actives and part member families. And now we have a lot more support from the members, so we should start seeing the success come soon.

Well that`s all for this week! Have a great week!!

-Èlder Gòmez

Amo ser misionero. Sè que Jesucristo vive y Èl es el camino que conduce a la vida eterna. :)