Semana 56

Hi everyone! I hope you´ve all had a great week! We´re doing good here!!

W and S assisted church yesterday! They´re progressing very well and they both have baptismal dates for the 27th of Septembre. 

We´ve been finding a lot of people and are working a lot with the members. On Saturday, we helped the Bishop move to his new apartment, and loading everything onto the truck. We´ve been visiting the members and a few have references for us. There´s a lot of former investigators in our area that asisted church a few times but never got baptized. We´re going to be looking for them as well.

The work has been progressing a lot here. We´ve set the goals for the month of October for baptisms and reactivations. I know that we can achieve these goals. If we always have faith and never let complaints or desanimation (not sure what that is in ingles...discouragement?) enter our mind and always work to our fullest, then we can achieve any goals.

Well that´s about it for this week. Have a great week everyone and be safe and I hope to hear from you all next week. 

-Elder Gomez

Amo ser misionero. Se que Jesucristo vive y que este es su Iglesia verdadera. :)

Semana 55

Hi everyone! I hope you´ve all had a great week! We´re doing good here.

We played futbol with the zone today for P-Day and then made tacos. That was fun.

It´s been good opening sector here in Asistencia. We brought an investigator to church yesterday. His name is S.B. He has a baptismal date for the 27th of September. He is really excited and has a strong desire to change his life. Also for the 27th, we have W.N. who everyone in his family is member except for him. He was going to get baptism last year, but there were some challenges and he never got baptized. But now, he wants to start asisting church again and wants to get baptized on the 27th of September.

The members have been helping us a lot. The ward missionary, Joseph, has been helping us a ton. He was with us all day Thursday and Saturday. He´s 18 and is preparing to leave on the mission in the next few months. He´s super excited to get his call and when he was with us, he contacted a lot of people and committed to bringing people to church. He helped us bring a less active to church yesterday. Yesterday, he was ordained a Priest, and he asked me to ordain him. That was cool. I had never ordained anyone before and it was a good experience. It´s a blessing to be able to use the priesthood. We should all strive to be worthy and ready to use our priesthood to bless others when the situation asks for it. 

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

Chao!

Elder Gomez

Amo ser misionero

Semana 54

Hi everyone! I hope you´re all doing well! This week marks 14 months in the mission. The time has passed super fast!!!

I got my new companion on Thursday that I will be training. His name is Elder Havell, from Salt Lake City, and is 18 years old. He´s really good and speaks good Spanish. It makes me feel old that more than half the mission has less time than me and that Elder Havell is my first companion in all the mission that is younger than me hahaha

From my house I can see Chillogallo in the distance. It´s weird seeing my old sector so close by, haha!

So we are opening a sector, which means that we are starting with almost nothing. In our ward, we have the companionship of the zone leaders, a companionship of sisters and us. Our sector originally was part of the sisters sector, but they split their sector when we came, so we´re working in the part where they haven´t been working much. The Sisters gave us a lot of records of people that missionaries in the past had taught in our sector, so this week we will be looking for those people. A lot of them are former investigators so maybe we can help some of them get baptized. 

The members here are really great! They´re all friendly and we´ve already been able to get the trust of them. Right after sacrament, the ward mission leader told me to teach the Gospel Principles class and teach the chapter on the missionary work and to animate them all to participate in the missionary work. We were able to teach it well and I got them laughing and everyone was excited to share their missionary experiences. Then in the 3rd hour it was combined and all the missionaries had to give a capacitation (I don´t know what that is in english) about missionary work and everyone was excited to help us find people to teach. 

I know that we are going to have a lot of success here in Asistencia Social. 

That´s all for this week! Hope you all have a great week! Stay safe and I can´t wait to hear from you all next week!!

Elder Gomez

Amo ser misionero :)

Semana 53-Transfers

Hi everyone! I hope you all had a great week! We had our changes today and I left to Asistencia Social in Turubama which is about 20 minutes from my last sector, Chillogallo. I will be training a new missionary so I won´t receive my companion until Thursday and I´m also a district leader again. I´m going to be opening a new sector so we´re going to be starting out with nothing and will have to find our way around. I know that we will have success here and find a lot of people who will be receptive to hear the Gospel. If we put our trust in the Lord, anything is possible.

I really miss Chillogallo. It was sad to leave all the people and places that I came to love there. We were able to help a lot of people and gain the trust of the ward leaders and a lot of the members. 

M.C. came to church yesterday and he has a baptismal date for the 13 of September. He is progressing well and really enjoyed being in church yesterday. 

Well that´s about all for this week. Hope you all have a great week and next week I´ll let you all know about my new companion. Stay safe and hope to hear from you all soon!

-Élder Gómez

¡Amo ser misionero!

Semana 53

Hi everyone! I hope you`ve all had a great week!

Next week we have changes and I`ll probably be leaving. I`ll let you know what happens. I`ve been here in Chillogallo for four months and it`s really great here. If I go, I`ll miss it a lot. 

That`s really sad to hear that Robin Williams died. he was a really funny actor. 

We had a few minor tremors this week. The big earthquakes were in the north of Quito, which is out of our mission, so nothing happened here. We just felt the earth shake a bit. 

This week we found a new family named the Family C. They first heard the missionaries 20 years ago and listened for 2 years. They assisted church all that time in the stake center here. They never got baptized. They moved to a new house and lost contact with the missionaries. We taught them this week and they want to learn again. The message of the Restoration is coming back to their memory and they know it`s true. Even though they didn`t get baptized they said that the principles they learned we`re what helped them raise their children successfully and they credit the teachings of the Church to what`s happened to their children. They all have children and successful careers. That was a testimony builder to me, seeing how the Gospel helps families have happiness and success.

We didn`t get anyone to church this week, but with this being the last week before changes, we`re going to be work hard, staying focused and animated to find new people. 

Hope you all have a great week! Help the missionaries in your ward. Get to know them and support them with every person that they teach. Go on visits with them and don`t be afraid to open your mouths to proclaim the Restored Gospel to your friends.

-Elder Gòmez

Amo muchísimo ser misionero. Sè que Jesucristo vive.

Semana 52

Hi everyone! I hope you´ve all had a great week. Tomorrow marks a year since I left the MTC and arrived to Ecuador. The time has gone by way too fast!

Well L is still doing good after her baptism. If she doesn´t have exams she will be going with the youth to the Guayaquil temple this week to do baptisms. That will be able to help her a lot to stay active. It´s so great to see converts go to the temple. That´s the goal we want.

The work should start progressing a lot more here soon. In ward council, the counselor in the bishopric talked about the things we need to do to improve. The majority of our ward council and coordination meetings are ineffective and a waste of time. The leaders have been reluctant to work with the Work of Salvation and the new vision we need to have. But now, it appears that they´re more willing to work with it. Yesterday I gave a talk in Sacrament meeting about how can we hasten the work and our responsibilities as members. In the meeting we had with the Seventies last week, they shared a scripture in Ezequiel 34 that talks about some members who only care for themselves and the other active members, and that we need to care for all. I shared that in my talk. We all need to open our mouths and share the Gospel, whether we´re missionaries or no. We need to invite everyone to come unto Christ. The vision of our Heavenly Father is that all of His children can return to live with Him. (Moses 1:39). He has called all of us to fulfill that vision. 

Well, so far we´ve been looking for new investigators, but haven´t had very much success. We´ve been helping a lot of less actives come back to church, and we have a lot coming to church every week. We´ve had success with the less actives, but not with investigators. Despite the challenges I´ve faced in the mission, they´ve helped me a ton to grow. In these last two weeks I think I´ve gained my conversion. I can now say with more surety that I know my Savior Jesus Christ and that this is His true church. A lot of things in the Gospel are making more sense and I seem to be learning new things almost every day. I still have a lot to grow and a ton to improve, but I know that if I hadn´t served a mission, that none of this would have happened.

Well that´s all for this week! Hope you all have a fantastic week! 

-Élder Gómez

Amo ser misionero. Sé que Jesucristo vive y Él nos ama a todos.

Semana 51

Hi everyone! I hope you`ve all had a great week! We`re doing good here!

On Saturday L got baptized! It was very special. Her uncle baptized her. Her Dad came and also to see her confirmed in Sacrament meeting. It was very good because he hasn`t been to church in many years, but he has the desire to come back to church.

On Friday we had the zone conference with Elder C. Scott Grow from the South America North East Area Presidency who is also in the 1st Quorum of the Seventy.Then that same evening we had a special meeting with him and all of the Ward Councils in Quito from our mission. It was a very spiritual meeting and Elder Grow talked a lot about how we can hasten the Work of Salvation and how we can work more effectively in ward council.

Well that`s all for this week. Right now, we don`t have very many investigators, so we`re looking and working hard to find new investigators. I know that if we put our trust in the Lord, He will guide our path and help us in all that we need. Hope you all have a great week. 

-Elder Gomez

Amo ser misionero