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. :)

Semana 46-One Year!

Hi everyone! I hope you`re all doing great! This Wednesday I reach the year mark!! The time goes by super fast. It`s all down hill from here. This is when it`s extremely important to give it all you`ve got.

To help us gain more trust with Bishop, on Thursday morning we and the other companionship made a ton of breakfast burritos then gave them to the Bishop. He was super happy and invited us all to his house this Thursday for lunch. Yesterday, we saw the fruits of our burritos: He`s a lot more helpful with us and he trusts in us even more and has a desire to help us.

Friday morning, we received short notice that a third companionship was going to be coming to open up a sector here in Chillogallo. We waited for a while at the bus station then showed them to their new apartment. We had to make changes in the boundaries and our sector is smaller now, but that`s okay because we`re going to be able to focus more on areas more closer and not lose time traveling far distances. In these next few transfers, a ton of missionaries are going to be coming from the MTC, later this year, every ward and branch in this mission will have at least three companionships. With 6 missionaries in every ward, the work should progress a ton. The Lord is hastening His work and that`s why He`s sending so many missionaries here. 

We`ve been worknig a lot to find new people to teach. J doesn`t want anything to do with the church anymore and almost everyone else except a few aren`t progressing. We`ve had to drop a lot of people. The other companionship here as well has dropped almost all of their investigators. Now that we`re getting a lot more support from the ward leaders and other members, we should start getting more references and have more people to teach. We`ve made some plans to participate more with the members and we`re really excited to start working more with the members. The best missionaries in the scriptures passed for times when they didn`t have people to teach and a lot of times were rejected. The Lord promised them that if they remained diligent and faithful and encouraged to work, then The Lord would give them success and guide them to the people that are prepared to receive the Gospel. I know the same is true with us. Other times in the mission, I know that the Lord guided us to find families that were prepared to receive the Gospel, (like the Family G and the Family G). So I know that if we keep doing what we`re doing, and always trying to work even harder each day, then the Lord will give us success and help us find these families and people.

Well that`s about all for this week. have a great week everyone and stay safe!

-Èlder Gòmez

Sè que Jesucristo vive y Su Evangelio es el camino para llegar a la felicidad. Amo ser misionero muchìsimo.

Semana 45

Hi everyone! I hope you´ve all had a great week this week. This week is the last week of President Ghent. On Friday President Christensen will be coming here and starting next week, he will be taking over the Ecuador Quito Mission. We had a final zone conference with President Ghent on Friday to say goodbye to him. It´s sad to see him and his wife go, but we´re excited to start working with President Christensen. He will do very good.

Well J didn´t get baptized as planned. His brother called him from Colombia the night before his baptism and told not to get baptized and to wait for him to come to Ecuador to get baptized. But his brother won´t be here another few weeks or even a month. Then two days later he had some bad seizures and bruised and cut his face bad and didn´t come to church. We´re going to try to help him out and pray for him to help him finally reach a baptism date. 

Our investigators didn´t come to church yesterday. Elder Batista and I today made a list of all the things we´re going to do this week to improve and have more success in the week. Sometimes in the mission, we pass through a lot of trials and difficulties. It can get really hard at times, but I know that the Lord is always with us. If it wasn´t easy for Jesus Christ to perform the atonement and carry out his mission, then why should we expect our mission to be super easy? The Lord gives us these challenges to test our faith and if we can endure them well, He will bless us with greater faith and success in the end. I´m almost at the year mark, and from there it´s all down hill. This last year, I need to serve like I´ve never served before. 

Hope you all have a great week this week. Stay safe and pray for opportunities to share the Gospel, because the Gospel is the only way to find happiness.

-Élder Gómez

Amo ser misionero :)

Semana 44

Hi everyone!! Hope you`re all having a great day and that you all had a great Father`s Day.

I can`t believe that tomorrow I turn 19 years old and in two weeks I`ll have a year in the mission. How the time goes by...

Well it looks like I don`t need rabies shots!! yay! We went to the Health Center and they said that we just need to watch the dog for 10 days and if it`s still alive and healthy after the 10 days then I don`t need the vaccine. We even showed them the dog the and someone from the healh center examined it and said that the dog is healthy. How lucky, because the vaccine is 10 shots in the stomach! Ouch! Other than that, my leg is healing well.

Today for P-Day we went in the mountains as a zone and hiked a trail to a water fall. It was really cool! It was a lot of fun but now I`m sunburnt. Haha

Well J didn`t get baptized on Saturday. He realy wanted his family to be there for his batism, but because they couldn`t come he wanted to do it the next week. So this Friday will be his baptism. He`s super excited to get baptized and to share the Gospel with his family. We taught his friend and she wants to asist church, but didn`t come yesterday because of Father`s Day. 

We taught an investigator named L who has been asisting church for quite a while now with her aunt who is the wife of one of the couselors in the stake presidency. Her dad is a return missionary but went inactive and she never got baptized. She was living in Colombia with her mom for a long time but just few months ago decided to come live here with her Dad and her aunt has been teaching her about the church and she wants to get baptized. Her Dad remaried also and his wife wants to get baptized too. It`s going to take some time though because we want to reactivate the Dad but he works so much and hardly gets time off and he wants to make sure that his daughter and wife have a firm testimony before they make the decision.

Well, it`s World Cup time and I think this is going to have an affect on the Latin America missions and everywhere else where soccer is huge. In our ward, church attendance is normally about 180. But yesterday was Father`s Day and also Ecuador played (they lost) and attendance dropped to 120. Elder Dalin H. Oaks came down here last week for a YSA conference and talked to President Ghent and told him that under no circumstance are the missionaries allowed to watch the World Cup. That`s good, because I think the World Cup is distracting some missionaries.  But we`re still working diligently and are focused on our work. We know that we`re here for a reason and a purpose to invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive His Restored Gospel.

Well that`s about all for this week. Hope you all have a great week and stay safe and happy. Can`t wait to hear from you all next week!

Happy Father`s Day to all you fathers!

-Èlder Gòmez

Amo ser misionero