Semana 66

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

This saturay we have a bautismo for an investigador. His name is M. He can´t read and he´s losing his hearing, so we pretty much have to shout in his hear every time we teach him. He´s a really great and humble person though. We´re really excited for his bautismo. 

Today for p-day we were able to go back to Pelileo, since it´s in the zone. It was really cool to be able to go back after so long. After that, we went to the house of the liders of zone and cooked and played Uno and Monopoly. I made churros. 

I really love it here in Ambato. It´s awesome here and the people are so great. I know that we will be able to have a lot of success here and we will be working hard and trusting in the Lord to have that success. I know that God lives and that Jesus Christ is his son and that through this plan, families can be together forever in the presence of God. 

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

-Elder Gomez

Amo ser misionero :)

Semana 65

Hi everyone! I hope you´re all doing great! We´re doing great here!

We had changes today and I got changed to Ambato! I´m with Elder Potter from Huntington, Utah. He´s from the group of Elder Havell so he just finished his training. I´m still leader of district as well. It feels weird after being in Quito for 7 months and seeing the valley of the south of Quito and Panecillo all the time, now leaving and coming back to Ambato. Pelileo is in this zone, which was where I was three sectors ago, so it will be cool going to back to Pelileo for a p-day and seeing all the people I taught again. 

This was probably the hardest change I´ve had to do in the mision. I´ve come to love so much the people here in Asistencia Social that it was hard to leave them all. I know though that the Lord needs me here in Ambato and that here I´ll come to love the people as well and help a lot of people. 

M was able to get baptized on Saturday! It was a very special service. His mom even came, who isn´t member, but she´s seen the example of her sister and niece who are coming back to church after many years of being inactive, and when M got baptized she was crying. She asisted church yesterday tambien to see the confirmacion of M and stayed for the classes. She really like the church and wants to keep asisting. I really hope that she can get baptized. It´s amazing the changes we´ve seen in this family. I know that God lives and He loves us, and that He can change the hearts of people and help them follow the straight and narrow path. :)

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

-Elder Gomez

Amo ser misionero! :)

Semana 64

Hi everyone! How are you all doing? We are doing great here in Asistencia Social!

(I realized that I was writing this in spanish then changed to english. Ya no soy gringo jajaja)

We had a miracle this week. M on Friday told us that he wasn´t going to be able to asist church because of something he and his family had to church. We were sad because that meant his fecha for the 15th ws going to fall through. But we got to church yesterday and boom! he ran up to us. Turned out he and his aunt got to the church an hour early at 7:00 am before anyone else. We were so happy to see him there. He was also able to participate in the primary program so that was really cool. After the church he had his interview and all good for his baptism this Saturday!! We´re very exited for him. We also brought a new investigator to church, named S. She came then found out that one of her good friends is member and was there and helped her have a great time in the church. 

We´re starting to find a lot more new investigators. We´ve been finding families that seem really interested and want to know if this is true what we are teaching, but the majority are not married and just live together so that makes it kind of hard. We´ve also been randomly finding less actives in the street. We found one who was drunk in the street who had gotten baptized in Chillogallo and his son is a return missionary who served in Mexico. At first we thought there were very few members in our sector, but we´ve been finding less actives so hopefully we can start bringing them to church.

Church asistance was over 180. Normally it´s about 140, and maybe it had something to do with the primary program but we´re hoping that asistance can keep increasing and that we can strengthen the ward. President Christensen said that successfull missionaries need to help strengthen the ward and help that asistence can increase.

Well that´s all for this week. Next week we have changes, but I hope I can stay here. I really love it here. Have a great week be safe and I hope to hear from you all next week!

Chao!

-Elder Gomez

Amo ser misionero :)

Semana 63

Hi everyone! I hope you´re all doing good. We´re doing great here in Asistencia Social! Today I complete 16 month in the mission. The time has passed by super fast.

The Family C asisted church yesterday and the mom was able to have an interview with the bishop and she´s doing a lot better and happy to come back to church. Her nephew M came also and he has a fecha for the 15 of Novembre. He´s really excited to be baptized and will also be participating in the primary program next week. 

After a long time of working with him, we had a less active finally come to church yesterday named R. He´s the only member in his family which makes it hard for him to do what´s right, especially to asist church. But yeterday he came and I was really happy. It´s always special seeing less actives come back to church and renewing their covenants. We are all special children of our Heavenly Father, and He wants all of us to return to His presence. I testify that God lives and Jesus Christ lives and came to this world to die for us that we may all return to live with God.

We found a large family this week named the Family C. There´s probably more than 20 in this family. So far, we´ve only taught 10 of them. They´re all really good and a few of them asisted church a long time ago. The mom felt really frustrated because she couldn´t find a church that has profets and 12 apostles like in the Bible. Then we came and she was super excited! They all have sincere desires to know if this is true. They want to asist church next week with us. They didn´t come yesterday because of Day of the Dead and almost everyone went on vacations or visit the cementaries. 

This weekend was Day of the Dead and today the streets have been dead. We went to the offices, about a 45 minute bus ride only to find it closed because of the holidays. A lot of people went on vacations for the weekend. Here the tradition for Day of the Dead is serve the colada morada which is a special drink with berries and fruits and herbs with bread called guaguas de pan which is bread shaped as babies filled with jam. It´s really good. They only serve it at this time of year. 

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

-Elder Gomez

Amo ser misionero! :)

Semana 62

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

We went to Panecillo again for a distrit actividad. As distirct leader I had to plan it and make a purpose out of it. I shared the dedicatory prayer that Elder Spencer W. Kimball offered in 1965 on the same hill of Panecillo. It was very spiritual and cool seeing a lot of the things that Elder Kimball said in the prayer are being fullfilled here in Ecuador. The work has grown a ton here in Ecuador, but there´s still so much to do. There are many people that have never heard the Gospel and that´s what animates so much is to be able to bring the Gospel into the lives of so many people. It doesn´t matter how hard you "think" the mission is. There´s always someone in every sector that needs your help specifically. You just have to be patient have faith in Jesucristo and work diligently to find those people. 

Well this week our investigators weren´t able to asist church. We´re going to have to drop the majority of them this week. We need to spend more time looking for those who are prepared. We´re still going to be be working with M though. We gave him a fecha for the 15 of Noviembre and he has a lot of desire to progress.

We had zone conferences this week with Presidente Christsensen. It was very spiritual and uplifiting. He´s really trying to change the vision of the mision. We need to dedicate 50% of our time to investigators and the other 50% percent to the less actives. There are a lot of less acitves in Ecuador and the wards are struggling because of it. Every soul is valuable to the sight of God, so we need to help as many as we can enter in the fold and as many possible to come back. 

We also had the stake conference yesterday. Presidente Christsensen and his wife spoke as well as the Presidente and his wife of the Guayaquil Temple came all the way here to speak. It was very special. They were trying to stream it to the other chapels in the stake but there were technical difficulties so a ton ended up coming into our chapel and it was super full. haha

Well that´s all for this week. I 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. Se que Jesucristo vive y que hemos sido llamados por Dios para participar en esta gran obra. :)

Semana 61

Hi everyone! How are you all? We´re doing great here!

We went to a place called Molinuco for pday today. We went on hike to see a lot of big waterfalls and there was a mini zip line that we used. It was a lot of fun. Molinuco is in Los Chillos so to get there we had to pass through Conocoto, which was my first area in the mission. It was cool seeing Conocoto and seeing everything again after leaving there 10 months ago. It was very pretty seeing the wildlife and nature. (pictures next week, sorry)

The Family B.C. asisted church yesterday pero they can´t have a fecha because they aren´t married so we need to help them so that they can get married and so they can get baptized. M wasn´t able to asist yesterday because the stairs in their house collapsed last week and they all had to stay in the house while the workers were fixing it. But this week he´ll be able to asist with his cousin and aunt who are less actives. 

This week I´ve come to comprehend better the atonement of Jesus Christ and how important it is. I know that Jesucristo lives and that only through Him can we be cleansed of sin and become more like Him and be able to live with Him and our Heavenly Father again. It doesn´t matter the mistakes we committ in this life, if we truly repent and stirve to follow Jesucristo, we can be cleansed of our sins. 

Well that´s all for this week. Stay safe and hope you all have a great week! 

con amor,

Elder Gomez

Semana 60

Hi everyone! I hope you´re all doing good. We´re doing great here!

Elder Havell has been sick a lot so we haven´t been able to work too much. The nurses said he has altitud sickness. But now he´s a lot better, so this week we´ll be able to work a lot harder and help a lot more people come unto Christ. 

We brought a less active family to church who were asisting years ago in the ward Guamaní in Chillogallo. The husband died and they moved into the ward Asistencia Social. Since they didn´t know many members and didn´t know where to find the capilla, they stopped asisting church. Some members told us about them and showed us where they live and we found their house last week. They were super excited and happy to find the missionaries again. They came to church yesterday and felt so great to be able to come back to church in so many years. They also brought their grandson M who isn´t a member but he loved the church and wants to learn more.

S had to work yesterday, but he says that yesterday was his last Sunday of work. He says that from now on, he´s going to get Sundays off to be able to asist church. We´ll be working with him a lot. He says the situation in his family has improved a ton. That he feels the influence of the espirit more in his life and that he´s not fighting with his family. He´s recognizing the blessings of God more in his life. I know that the Lord has blessed him a ton. God loves us so much and want to bless us. When we strive to live the Gospel, He blesses us. We´re hoping to give him a fecha for the 25th of Octobre. 

If you haven´t heard the movie Meet the Mormons seems to be having a lot of success. It´s not here in Ecuador but it seems really good. You should all see it. 

Well that´s about it for this week. Stay safe and I hope you all have a great week. Pray for oportunities to share the Gospel this week. Can´t wait to hear from you all soon!

Elder Gomez

Amo ser misionero. Se que Jesucristo vive y Él es cabeza de esta Iglesia. Se que Él es nuestro Salvador.